Senior Structural Engineer

I'm working with an early-stage space company in El Segundo that is growing its mechanical engineering team and looking for a Senior Structures & Analysis Engineer .

They're developing first-of-its-kind spacecraft hardware for commercial and government missions, with engineers getting significant ownership across design, analysis, testing and flight readiness.

What you'll be working on:

• Structural analysis across spacecraft, payload and deployment hardware
• Static, dynamic, vibration, buckling, fatigue and fracture analysis
• FEA alongside first-principles and hand calculations
• Structural dynamics, loads and margins of safety
• Supporting vibration, shock and structural qualification testing
• Correlating analytical models against real test data
• Working closely with mechanical design, manufacturing, systems and test teams
• Driving structural trades, mass optimisation and hardware improvements

What they're looking for:

• Around 5 to 10 years of structural, stress, loads or structural dynamics experience
• Strong fundamentals in mechanics of materials, statics and dynamics
• Experience with tools such as FEMAP/NASTRAN, ANSYS or Abaqus
• Experience analysing aerospace or other high-performance hardwareSomeone comfortable working from first principles rather than relying solely on software outputs

Spacecraft, launch vehicle, mechanisms or deployment-system experience would be particularly relevant.

This position involves access to U.S. export-controlled space technology. Candidates must meet applicable ITAR/export-control requirements, including being a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee/asylee, or otherwise being eligible to obtain the required U.S. Department of State authorisation.