Mass Properties Intern

Archer • San Jose, CA

5h • $25 - $35 • Onsite

About The Position

Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose, California building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing, manufacturing, and operating an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.
Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.
This internship is a part of a 10-week full-time summer internship program opportunity. This role will be based at Archer’s headquarters in San Jose, California and relocation or housing will not be provided.
Archer is seeking a motivated and detail-oriented intern to join Archer. This internship provides a hands-on opportunity to gain practical experience within the Mass Properties team. Responsibilities support aircraft weight, center of gravity, and inertia modeling across design, build, and test. You will collaborate with design, manufacturing, and flight test teams to retire mass properties risks, improve data quality and traceability, and identify weight-saving opportunities that protect performance and safety margins.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing a B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline (returning to school after the internship).
• Familiarity with mass properties fundamentals (weight, center of gravity, moments, inertia) and strong comfort with units and coordinate systems.
• Proficiency with Excel for engineering analysis (formulas, data organization, plotting); experience with Python and/or MATLAB is a plus.
• Experience with or exposure to CAD tools (e.g., CATIA, NX, Creo, SolidWorks) and the ability to interpret models/drawings and BOMs.
• Strong attention to detail and a data-driven mindset; able to maintain traceable records and catch inconsistencies.
• Self-motivated and able to make progress with ambiguity; communicates clearly and collaborates well with cross-functional technical teams.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain component and system-level mass properties estimates (weight, CG, and inertia) using CAD, supplier data, and measured weights.
• Support configuration-controlled weight tracking by reconciling changes versus baseline and clearly communicating deltas, drivers, and risk areas.
• Assist with part/subassembly weighing activities including setup planning, scale selection/checks, data collection, and documentation for traceability.
• Perform first-principles calculations (moments, coordinate transforms, inertia approximations) and sanity checks to validate mass properties inputs and outputs.
• Develop and improve spreadsheets, dashboards, or scripts (Excel, Python, MATLAB) to automate data ingestion, reporting, and quality checks.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to close data gaps, resolve discrepancies, and support design reviews; identify weight risk and weight-saving opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern