Structures Engineer I (Spacecraft)

Firefly Aerospace•Cedar Park, TX

About The Position

Firefly Aerospace is seeking a spacecraft structures engineer to develop primary and secondary structures throughout the product life cycle for its Blue Ghost Lunar Lander and Elytra vehicles. The role contributes to analysis, design, fabrication, and testing, and owns the hardware design cycle for missions from conceptual design through structural testing. The engineer will design composite and metallic spacecraft structures, optimize mass and production rates, support production and future mission development, and maintain requirements, schedules, budgets, and cross-system coordination. The position requires strong collaboration and communication skills and a positive attitude.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, or civil engineering.
At least 3 years of experience in aerospace or related structures engineering.
Strong design and integration skills using 3-D CAD software; Siemens NX and FiberSim are preferred.
Strong understanding of ASME Y14.5 and drafting techniques for component and assembly specifications.
Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team and provide technical guidance and insight.
Demonstrated experience with precision structural integration and manufacturing techniques.
Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations under applicable space technology export regulations, including ITAR.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering and/or at least 5 years of experience.
Working knowledge of composite manufacturing methods, material selection, testing, and characterization.
Experience with industry FEA/FEM tools such as Nastran, ANSYS, FEMAP, or Simcenter.
Experience with advanced honeycomb panel design and manufacturing techniques, including heat pipe integration and thermal control systems.
Experience with vehicle-level static and vibroacoustic testing.
Familiarity with aerospace standard structural analysis methods such as Bruhn, Niu, and Roark.

Responsibilities

Own the hardware design cycle for a mission, including conceptual design, structural layout, sizing analysis, hardware production, and structural testing.
Design and develop composite and metallic structures for orbital and lander spacecraft.
Optimize mass and production rate of existing designs and requalify designs.
Support production teams through onsite review and verification, and close non-conformance dispositions in a timely manner.
Support configuration development and trade studies for future spacecraft missions.
Maintain requirements compliance and verification, hardware delivery schedules, mass budgets, and inter-system collaboration activities.
Create CAD models, manufacturing drawings, specifications, analysis reports, test plans, and reports.
Perform first-order strength and sizing calculations, working with stress and dynamics analysts to document critical strength capabilities.