The posting, in Hadrian's own words
archived Oct 17, 2026Hadrian - Manufacturing the Future
Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost. Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built. Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen. If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.
The Role:
As a Tooling Engineer on the Welding team, you will design and build the fixtures and tooling that let us weld complex aerospace, defense, and naval parts accurately and repeatably. You will take each tool from concept and CAD through fabrication, prove-out, and daily use on the floor, working side by side with welding engineers, welders, and our automation team. The role is based at our weld development facility in Los Angeles and covers both manual welding and robotic weld cells.
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What You’ll Do
Design weld fixtures and tooling, including locating and clamping fixtures, positioner tooling, and purge, backing, and chill tooling, from concept through detailed drawings. Validate tooling designs with FEA and hand calculations for load, stiffness, and thermal effects during welding. Manage tool fabrication with internal shops and outside vendors, then prove out, verify, and release each tool to production. Work with welding engineers and welders on the floor to control distortion, improve fit-up, and make tools easy and safe to use. Design and adapt tooling for robotic welding cells and positioners to support our move toward weld automation.
What We’re Looking For
Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, or Welding Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience, with 4+ years designing tooling in a manufacturing environment. Experience designing weld fixtures or tooling, or a combined background in both welding and tooling design. Track record of taking tools from CAD into production and supporting them through prove-out and continuous improvement. Proficiency in 3D CAD (SolidWorks, NX, or CATIA) and GD&T, plus FEA or static analysis to validate tooling under real-world conditions. Working knowledge of welding processes, weld distortion, and material selection for tooling exposed to high heat and high loads.
What Will Set You Apart
Experience building tooling for robotic or automated weld cells, including positioners, sensors, and pneumatic clamping. Background with large or complex welded structures in aerospace, defense, or shipbuilding. Experience with modular or reconfigurable fixturing systems that support multiple part variants. Hands-on welding or machining skills. Familiarity with AS9100, NAVSEA, or AWS requirements and tool verification methods such as CMM or laser tracker inspection.
Compensation
For this role, the target salary range is $115,000 - $170,000 (actual range may vary based on experience). This is the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee's pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors, including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.