Rotorcraft Weights Engineer

CFD Research Corporation • Huntsville, AL

11d • Onsite

About The Position

CFD Research Corporation is seeking multidisciplinary design experts in rotary-wing and advanced air vehicle design to support the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Center’s (AvMC) Technology Development Directorate (TDD). The engineer will apply existing computational tools, develop new computational methods, and build models in specialized areas such as cost, propulsion, and parametric design to support rotorcraft conceptual, preliminary, and detailed component design activities. This position will support the Conceptual Design and Assessment (CD&A) branch with a focus on developing aircraft weight trends, formulation and update of weight equations, and conducting detailed weight assessment of aircraft. The position will assess air vehicle performance and weights and support the team’s assessment of cost and operational capability. The position will support the development and evaluation of new aircraft concepts against user requirements, assess ongoing aircraft development programs, and provide technical expertise to TDD for future air vehicle concepts and exploratory design initiatives.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience performing conceptual design of rotorcraft manned/unmanned systems, estimating aircraft performance and weights.
• B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field from an accredited college or university.
• Direct experience performing weights analyses and developing component and system level weight trends.
• Experience developing aircraft designs and estimating performance using NDARC and Air Vehicle Integrated Design Environment (AIDEN).
• Experience conducting aircraft trade studies to define and explore trade space.
• U.S. Citizen.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance.
• Must be able to travel up to 10% of the time

Nice To Haves

• M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field from an accredited college or university.
• Advanced knowledge of rotor conceptual design process.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and lead technical efforts with minimal oversight.
• Experience with OpenVSP, OpenMDAO, and Creo Parametric.

Responsibilities

• Collect and curate data necessary to formulate updates to weight equations, develop weight trends, and apply these trends to aircraft studies as needed.
• Perform detailed assessment of vendor aircraft and compare component weights to existing trends.
• Utilize government-standard tools, such as NASA Design and Analysis of Rotorcraft (NDARC), for detailed aircraft modeling and performance assessment.
• Provide expert input on technology factors used in calibration of NDARC models.
• Explore requirements trade space and provide guidance on operational impacts of design features as they relate to operational requirements.
• Assess current technologies and collaborate with other technical disciplines to provide system-level assessments of component technologies.
• Collaborate with a team to develop and test new tools used in the design process.

Benefits

• employer matching 401(k)
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
• highly competitive insurance package, including medical, vision, and dental insurance
• company paid leave
• compensation time
• parental leave
• long-term and short-term disability
• accidental death and dismemberment
• life insurance

What This Job Offers

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