Structural Design Engineer, Spectrum (m/f/d)

About this role

Mission Brief As a Structural Design Engineer in the Reusability Department, you will shape the structural architecture of next-generation reusable launch vehicles. Your work will bridge vehicle design, structural analysis, and integrated system layout to enable fast, informed architecture trade studies and development decisions. Your Role in Our Space Mission: Define and evaluate vehicle-level structural loads, load paths, and critical sizing cases across ascent, recovery, landing, and ground operations.

Develop structural concepts and perform sizing activities using first-principles methods, reduced-order models, and targeted finite element analyses. Translate reusable launcher architecture concepts into realistic, rapidly adaptable CAD layouts that support architecture trade studies and vehicle development. Assess the integration of primary structures with tanks, fluid systems, aerodynamic surfaces, landing systems, mechanisms, and other vehicle subsystems.

Create and maintain structural models of appropriate fidelity to evaluate feasibility, mass, stiffness, interfaces, and overall vehicle performance. Identify structural drivers, design constraints, and cross-system dependencies to guide architecture decisions and system optimization. Support multidisciplinary vehicle development by balancing structural performance, operability, manufacturability, and reuse requirements.

Communicate structural implications, trade-offs, and recommendations to engineering stakeholders across the program. Qualification Checklist 3-7 years of experience in aerospace, launch vehicles, aircraft structures, or other highly engineered structural products. Experience developing structural concepts and layouts from requirements through preliminary design. Experience contributing to vehicle-level architecture trades and multidisciplinary system development.

Strong understanding of structural mechanics, load paths, structural sizing, and vehicle-level structural behavior. Proficiency with FEM tools (e.g. Abaqus, Nastran, Ansys, HyperWorks ) for both conceptual assessments and targeted detailed analyses. Ability to develop reduced-order models and engineering approximations from higher-fidelity analyses. Strong CAD skills (e.g. CATIA, Siemens NX or comparable) with the ability to rapidly create and iterate structurally credible vehicle layouts.