Staff Structural Analyst

As a Staff Analysis Engineer, you will provide technical leadership in structural and/or thermal‑fluids analysis for aerospace vehicles and propulsion systems. You will work across multiple engines, stages, and supporting systems, bringing best practices from prior roles, supporting and/or leading verification and validation, and providing proactive design feedback. You will help assess nonconforming hardware, improve analysis methods, and mentor other engineers over time.

Responsibilities (may apply in combination and/or based on focus)

• Evaluate designs through static, dynamic, fatigue, and/or fracture analyses to meet performance, reliability, and life objectives.
• Develop and maintain system‑level and/or detailed FEM/FEA models for vehicles and propulsion systems; propagate loads and support loads development.
• Perform thermal‑structural and/or coupled thermal‑stress analyses, including nonlinear materials and large strains, and support vibration/shock analysis as needed.
• Verify and validate analytical and/or fluid system models, anchoring them to test data; work with test teams to define necessary instrumentation.
• Use hand calculations and/or CFD to assess fluid behavior (e.g., pressure drops, mass‑flow distribution, component performance) in engine and vehicle systems.
• Build steady‑state and/or transient 1D fluid models to predict system operating states, startup/shutdown behavior, and other key transients.
• Collaborate with design, systems, and manufacturing to ensure requirements and standards are met, and to disposition nonconforming hardware and repairs.
• Support anomaly and/or failure investigations through structural and/or fluid modeling and participation in root‑cause analysis.
• Improve analysis methods, workflows, and tools; contribute to team capability growth and provide technical guidance.

Minimum Requirements

• S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering or a related field.
• ~10+ years of structural and/or thermal‑fluids analysis experience on vehicles and/or propulsion systems.
• Strong background in structural mechanics and/or in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer.
• Experience performing FEA/FEM using commercial codes (e.g., ANSYS, Abaqus, NASTRAN‑based solvers).
• Experience anchoring analytical and/or fluid models to physical test data.
• Fatigue and fracture experience (e.g., HCF SN, LCF e‑N, and/or LEFM crack growth/safe‑life; NASGRO or similar tools beneficial).
• Experience in CFD and/or 1D fluid system modeling using commercial and/or lumped‑parameter tools (e.g., ANSYS Fluent/CFX, ROCETS, GFSSP, SINDA/FLUINT or similar).
• Programming skills for analysis automation and data processing (Python preferred; MATLAB or similar acceptable).
• Effective written and verbal communication; comfortable working in a fast‑paced, startup environment on safety‑critical systems.

Preferred Requirements

• S. or PhD in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering with emphasis in solid mechanics, fatigue/fracture, structural dynamics, fluids, and/or thermal sciences.
• ~12+ years combined structural and/or fluids analysis experience, ideally in rocketry or turbomachinery.
• Experience with advanced dynamics and loads (modal, random vibration, shock response).
• Specialized CFD (e.g., pumps, turbines, cavitation/two‑phase, combustion, or unsteady flows) and/or transient 1D modeling (e.g., water hammer, engine start).
• Experience with cryogenic, high‑pressure pneumatic, two‑phase or supercritical, and/or compressible flow systems.
• Familiarity with turbomachinery analytical methods (e.g., Campbell diagrams, rotordynamics) and/or composite materials, insulation, and ablative TPS.
• Experience supporting failure investigations and root‑cause analysis on development, test, or flight hardware.

Colorado law requires us to tell you the base compensation range of this role, which is $140,000 - $175,000, determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities. What we *can’t *quantify for you are the exciting challenges, supportive team, and amazing culture we enjoy.

Classification: Full-time Exempt