Principal Stress Analysis Engineer

Salient Motion•Torrance, CA

About The Position

We are pioneering modular motion technologies to power the next generation of innovation for Industrial, Aerospace and Defense. If you're excited about disrupting legacy industries, and passionate about motor control technology, let's chat! We are at the forefront of innovation, crafting exclusive motion control components that propel the industrial, aerospace, and defense sectors into the future. We are seeking a resourceful Principle Stress Analyst to lead the structural integrity and qualification efforts of mission‑critical hardware. This is a dynamic analysis role where you will own everything from early loads derivation and analytical requirements through detailed structural modeling, test planning, and correlation of flight hardware.

Requirements

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Experience: 15+ years of relevant experience and supported a formal qualification campaign.
Technical Expertise: Subject Matter Expert on all things structural and stress analysis.
Analysis & Simulation: Proficiency in the latest ANSYS simulation tools – knowledge in tools that speed up design time.
Standards & Qualification: Familiarity with stress methodologies, factors to be applied, and regulations to be satisfied by the analysis.
Grit: A "builder" mindset—you are as comfortable at a computer as you are with the team at a whiteboard or in front of hardware.

Nice To Haves

Qualification: Experience with FEA correlation for FAA programs
Specialization in Hydraulics: Detailed knowledge of electrohydraulic servomechanisms, both in function and load.
Stress for Aerospace: Strong understandings of methodology of features and elements that are unique to aerospace mechanisms (e.g., meridional stress at thread undercuts, lug analysis, joint preload, etc.).
Damage Tolerance: Ability to complete damage tolerance analysis using linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM).
Ansys Expert: Perform work in the Ansys tool suite

Responsibilities

Be the example for how to do first principles analysis by leveraging academic (e.g., Shigley, Roark, Juvinall, etc.) and industry (e.g., MMPDS, NASA guidelines) references – mentor the team how to do this quickly on their own designs to prevent unnecessary iterative cycles.
Understand working principles of mechanisms and the load paths/load transfer between the mechanism and surrounding structure from whiteboard sketches and 3D CAD.
Develop and execute detailed stress analyses including static strength, fatigue life, fracture mechanics, bolted‑joint analysis, vibration, shock, and thermal‑mechanical assessments across assemblies such as actuators, precision mechanisms, gear systems, housings, and avionics enclosures.
Strike the right balance between accuracy and speed but understanding the analysis risk and where a test can supplement analysis results.
Be part of the solution – working with the design engineers to remedy negative margins – be it minimal parts changes or sharpening the pencil on analysis.
Build, refine, and validate nonlinear and linear FEA models (modal, harmonic, transient, random vibration, shock, thermal) to ensure structural robustness in extreme or high‑vibration environments.
Write stress reports required for product certification including references to relevant regulations (FAA, EASA, DoD). Write structural verification test plans to correlate model results.
Build tools to automate selection of materials for fatigue using MMDPS data and a preferred materials list. Create calculators for the team to utilze.