Senior Mechanical Engineer (Sounding Rocket Program)

Peraton•Wallops Island, VA

3d•$104,000 - $166,000•Onsite

About The Position

Peraton is seeking a Mechanical Engineer with a focus on pneumatics to work in the Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GNC) section at Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA. This position supports NASA’s Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC) at the Wallops Flight Facility, which supports approximately 18 sounding rocket missions per year for a range of scientific and government experiments. Missions are flown from various launch sites globally. The role involves being the S-19 Boost Guidance engineer for sounding rocket missions, supporting system development throughout the entire mission life cycle, including launches at remote sites. Travel is required, typically for 4 to 6 weeks per remote launch site. The position requires an individual to be living locally to support efforts on base and to work on multiple projects concurrently, requiring the ability to work both individually and in a team environment. The role demands understanding and applying a broad range of technical disciplines germane to GNC problems, including pneumatic design and analysis, certification requirements and maintenance, basic power systems, mechanical systems, and cold gas pneumatics. It also requires the ability to understand and apply fluid dynamic and stress analysis to the pneumatic systems of sounding rocket payloads. Responsibilities include troubleshooting and maintaining existing custom pneumatic system designs for flight and GSE parts and assemblies, developing new parts and systems, supporting and guiding the development of new vendor-designed pneumatic parts, and performing testing on vendor parts. The engineer will communicate pneumatic concepts effectively to the program and customer in various formats and will work with high-pressure pneumatics systems. The role also involves supporting a significant manufacturing function, including ordering raw material, performing fabrication, testing components, and planning build efforts.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BS) in Mechanical Engineering; other Engineering or relevant technical degree with related electrical experience
8+ years engineering experience
Ability to understand and apply basic kinematics and dynamics
Pneumatic design and high-pressure safety protocols
MATLAB experience
MS Office experience

Nice To Haves

MS or higher in related discipline (may reduce experience requirement).
10 or more years relevant experience
Demonstrated control system capability
Real-time system development
GNC related experience

Responsibilities

Perform analyses of new and existing pneumatic support hardware
Applies comprehensive knowledge of engineering concepts, procedures and practices to GNC problems
Participate in technical design/modification negotiations with customers
Present system designs and analyses to customers and a variety of technical disciplines
Performs system integration and testing of in-house and subcontractor-supplied ACS and BGS systems
Analyze post-flight data and redesign or modify equipment to improve performance.
Perform integration tests to validate assemblies
Contribute to the development of new engineering products or specialty products and develop engineering specifications for applicable projects
Design, development, manufacturing, refurbishment and evaluation of hardware relevant to ACS Sensors and Pneumatic Attitude Control Systems
The ability to support the design of hardware and support equipment
Coordinate the efforts of multiple engineers, technicians, and fabrication areas
Test control systems which include high-pressure hardware and electro-mechanical components relevant to the control payload attitude