Composite Technician - Airframe

ABOUT US

Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces.

Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As the composite technician on the Airframe team, your core mission is to prototype carbon structures fast, in-house — from mould to finished, quality-checked part — and to bring innovative solutions that make assembly and prototyping easier. A true hands-on professional, you combine technical skills, initiative, and a maker mindset. You build tooling, lay up and finish composite parts (carbon / glass fibre), and turn the engineers' CAD into flight-worthy structures on short cycles. You are also the owner of technical drawings and supplier quotations for the parts you handle, and the one who trains production operators when a design moves to series. You thrive with minimal supervision, favour pragmatic, quick-result approaches over perfect-but-slow tooling, and are equally comfortable laying up a part, machining or printing a mould, and reading a technical drawing.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Rapid in-house prototyping (core)

• Produce carbon prototype structures quickly in-house, choosing the fastest viable route rather than heavy tooling when a proto is the goal.
• Propose innovative, simple solutions to speed up assembly and prototyping.
• Design certain parts and prototyping tools yourself (fixtures, adapters, simple structural parts) when it is faster than going through the design loop.
• Iterate fast with the design engineers: short loops between concept, part and feedback, flagging manufacturability issues before they cost a mould.

Tooling & moulds

• Build and maintain moulds and tooling, in coordination with the design team; machine or 3D-print mould masters, prepare and polish mould surfaces.
• Design and build layup jigs, trimming templates, bonding and assembly fixtures.
• Manage the composite workshop consumables and material inventory (fabrics, resins, cores, vacuum consumables) including storage and shelf-life follow-up.

Design & documentation

• Read and interpret 2D/3D drawings and ply books; model simple parts and tooling in CAD when needed; give manufacturability feedback early.
• Own the technical drawings: produce and keep up to date the manufacturing drawings for the parts and tooling you handle.
• Write and maintain clear, accessible fabrication procedures, ply books and cure logs on Confluence so processes are repeatable by others.
• Optimise part designs for their manufacturing process: adapt geometries for plastic injection (wall thickness, draft angles, ribs) or for composite / 3D-printed fabrication (layup feasibility, demoulding, printability), in collaboration with the design engineers.

Support & improvement

• Support assembly and mechanical testing, including preparing test coupons and samples for structural analysis.
• Identify and propose process and quality improvements; help run the composite workshop safely (dust extraction, PPE, resin handling and waste management).
• Own the knowledge transfer to production: train the production operators on fabrication and assembly processes, and validate that a process is repeatable by others before handover.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

• Technical diploma or degree in composite materials, mechanical / aerospace manufacturing, industrial technology, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Proven experience in rapid in-house composite prototyping (carbon / glass fibre): hand layup, vacuum bagging, infusion and/or prepreg; mould making and surface preparation a strong plus.
• Track record of quick, pragmatic solutions — getting a functional carbon part out fast, with sound trade-offs, rather than perfect parts requiring heavy tooling.
• Ability to read technical drawings and ply books, and to control layup orientation, resin ratios, debulking and cure cycles with rigour and traceability.
• Ability to produce manufacturing drawings (2D plans)
• Understanding of design-for-manufacturing basics for plastic injection (wall thickness, draft angles) and composite / 3D-printed parts, to optimise geometries with the design engineers.
• Hands-on finishing skills: trimming, sanding, drilling composites, structural bonding, insert fitting, and basic defect detection (porosity, delamination).
• Proficiency with common fabrication tools (hand tools, bench equipment, 3D printer; basic machining appreciated); CAD literacy (Fusion 360, SolidWorks, FreeCAD or similar) to adapt tooling and jigs.
• Highly autonomous — able to take ownership of tasks and drive them to completion with minimal supervision; resourceful and solution-oriented, comfortable improvising with available means.
• Pedagogy and communication: able to write clear, accessible procedures and to train production operators so processes remain repeatable without you; rigorous on process, safety and documentation.

We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.