Structural Engineer Jobs in the United States

About the Team:

The Structures and Mechanisms team is responsible for the full design, build, and test lifecycle of Terran R’s integrated structures and flight mechanisms. Whether you're working on highly iterative mechanisms that move or tight-margin structures that shouldn’t, you’ll get hands-on hardware ownership and see the rocket coming to life on the factory floor. Both teams fall under one department, sharing design principles, tools, and an integrated approach that provides a comprehensive view of Terran R. Team members work on multiple parts, not just within a single subsystem, and are empowered to make decisions that directly impact flight hardware. Beyond first flight, you’ll play a critical role in refining for manufacturability and speed.

The Base Heat Shield Structures team is responsible for the full design, build, and test lifecycle of Terran R’s base heat shield. Our team is responsible for all structure AFT of the engine gimbal plane with the core responsibility to isolate the engines from hazardous atmospheric environments from flight operations. Whether you're working on highly loaded structures under extreme thermal environments or isolating engines from one another you’ll get hands-on hardware ownership and see the rocket coming to life on the factory floor. Our team is organized under the greater Structures and Mechanisms department, sharing design principles, tools, and an integrated approach that provides a comprehensive view of Terran R. Team members work on multiple parts, not just within a single subsystem, and are empowered to make decisions that directly impact flight hardware. Beyond first flight, you’ll play a critical role in refining for manufacturability and speed.

About the Role:

To support our mission of changing the way rockets are built and flown, you will be responsible for bringing critical flight structures and supporting components from design concept to physical hardware ready to launch. The scope of work encompasses a full design cycle, including conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing and testing for primary and secondary structures associated with the Terran R Base Heat Shield. Here are some examples of projects you could be working on:

• OML Skins, Base Panels, High Temperature Seals, and internal supporting structures
• Review of static & dynamic load inputs, material properties & test as well as structural systems & subsystems requirements
• Analysis and sizing of flight structures to ensure timely design reviews and drawing release
• Develop and support hardware test campaigns, including test integration, operation and result evaluation
• Support manufacturing process development, including tools or fixtures design or analysis
• Your mission will be to deliver these projects on time and budget

In order to achieve this, you will be working closely with our Thermal Protection System (TPS), Design, Test and Loads & Dynamics teams. An ideal candidate would be self-motivated, thrives in ambiguity and is able to lead his or her own projects into completion. Ideally, you are someone who has come from a fast paced, aerospace environment, having completed difficult projects while collaborating effectively with other key groups. On a weekly basis, you will be designing flight or ground components using NX/TeamCenter, performing analysis using ANSA/META, ANSYS and/or hand calculations, creating and releasing drawings as well as supporting fabrication of your components. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly document your work and move forward your recommendation when decisions are needed.

About You:

• 2+ years of experience in a full cycle design engineering role iterating aerospace structures with a preference for aerodynamically driven assemblies with thermal gradients.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline
• Demonstrated knowledge of structural analysis and test (from hand calculations to advanced analysis)
• Demonstrated knowledge of structures strength, stability and fatigue failure mechanisms
• Demonstrated knowledge of additive and traditional manufacturing processes

Nice to haves but not required:

• 3+ years of aerospace experience and an advance engineering degree
• Experience with NX/TeamCenter
• Experience using Abaqus (ANSA/META) and ANSYS