Senior Staff Engineer - Advanced Mechanical Technologies

About our group:

The Advanced Mechanical Technologies team develops next-generation head-gimbal assemblies (HGA) and micro-actuated positioning systems that enable higher areal density, improved reliability, and scalable manufacturability in future HDD platforms. These systems operate at the intersection of mechanics, actuation, sensing, surfaces, and control, making cross-disciplinary interaction a fundamental part of the design challenge. We are part of Seagate’s Advanced Heads R&D organization, working at the forefront of mechanical innovation to enable higher areal density, improved reliability, and robust manufacturability in future HDD platforms.

About the role - you will:

Seagate is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to lead the design of next-generation precision mechanical and micro-actuated systems within the Head Gimbal Assembly (HGA) for recording head technologies. This role is for a mechanical dynamicist with deep physical intuition—someone who closes models, challenges assumptions, and creates new mechanical concepts, not simply executes existing ones.

 

This is a hands-on, physics-driven design role. You will own complex subsystems and apply fundamental understanding of structural dynamics, vibration, and actuation to deliver robust, manufacturable designs at scale. While rooted in mechanical dynamics, the work spans tightly coupled interactions with controls, tribology, materials, signal integrity, and manufacturing, offering natural growth into these adjacencies through real system behavior.

 

At Seagate, Senior Staff Engineers operate where nanometer-scale motion, high-bandwidth actuation, and long-term reliability converge. You will work on systems where physical insight, modeling discipline, and experimental truth define success.

 

As a Senior Staff Engineer, you will:

 

Physics-Driven Mechanical Design

Own the design of head-gimbal assemblies (HGA), flexures, suspensions, and micro-actuated mechanical subsystems from concept through validation.

Develop novel mechanical solutions to challenges involving bandwidth, resonance, stiffness, coupling, and robustness in precision motion systems.

Apply strong fundamentals in dynamics, structures, and actuation to guide design decisions where empirical rules or existing templates are insufficient.

 

Model Development, Closure & Interpretation

Build dynamic and structural FEA models to predict vibration, modal behavior, and actuation response.

Use physical insight to define boundary conditions, material behavior, and system interactions, ensuring models are meaningful and predictive.

Close models through physical reasoning and experimental correlation, identifying when assumptions break down and refining them accordingly.

Interpret results beyond solver outputs—explaining why a system behaves as it does and what must change to improve it.

 

Experimental Validation & Correlation

Design and execute experiments to validate dynamic behavior, including vibration, resonance, damping, and actuation performance.

Lead model-to-test correlation using LDV, high-frequency instrumentation, and data acquisition systems.

Treat model-hardware discrepancies as design insight, not merely verification.

 

Technical Leadership Across Disciplines

Serve as technical owner for cross-functional programs spanning R&D, manufacturing, and suppliers.

Drive alignment across controls, materials, tribology, electronics, and manufacturing, particularly where subsystem interactions define performance.

Use system-level physical understanding to resolve tradeoffs between mechanical dynamics and adjacent domains, with opportunity to grow technical depth in these areas over time.

Communicate technical maturity, risk, and tradeoffs based on physical understanding and validated data.

 

Technical Enablement & Mentorship

Develop reusable modeling workflows, simulation frameworks, and validation methods grounded in physical principles.

Mentor engineers in mechanical dynamics, model construction, and experimental rigor, strengthening the organization’s technical depth.

About you:

Core Technical Profile

Advanced experience in mechanical dynamics, structural mechanics, and precision actuation systems.

Demonstrated ability to apply fundamental physical understanding to: build and refine models, assess validity of simulation results, and develop new mechanical designs.

Expert-level use of dynamic FEA tools such as Ansys (Classic/Workbench), HyperWorks, MATLAB, or equivalent—used as engineering instruments, not as black boxes.

 

Experimental & Analytica