Mechanical Engineer III

About Firefly Aerospace Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

Summary Firefly is looking for talented Mechanical or Aerospace Engineers to join our Primary Structures Team. As a Senior or Lead Structures Responsible Engineer for Primary Structures, you will develop our state-of-the-art pressurized structures throughout the product life cycle for Launch Vehicles. You will be part of a highly skilled, dynamic team that will involve you in all aspects of analysis, design, fabrication, and testing. Excellent collaboration and communication skills, along with a can-do attitude are critical.

Responsibilities

• Formulate the comprehensive cradle to grave Road Map for your hardware - owning conceptual design, structural layout, sizing analysis, hardware production, and structural testing
• Design and development of composite pressurized structures
• Mass optimization of existing designs and requalifying designs
• Supporting products from conceptual creation, design release, analysis, prototype, qual and production
• Support configuration development and trade studies
• Maintain requirements, activity schedule, budget, and status
• Create CAD, manufacturing drawings, specifications, and other documentation
• Perform first order strength and sizing calculations for your structure

Qualifications Required

• B.S. degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering
• 6+ years of experience in a structural system design-related role
• Strong design and integration skills using 3-D CAD software (Siemens NX / FiberSim preferable).
• Ability to effectively work in a multi-discipline team and provide technical guidance and insight.
• Experience with industry FEA/FEM tools like Nastran, ANSYS, FEMAP, Simcenter, etc.
• A passion for the structures!

Desired

• Experience taking hardware from analysis, through test, and back through analysis validation
• Familiarity with aerospace standard structural analysis methods (Bruhn, Niu, Roark, etc)
• Working knowledge of composite manufacturing methods, material selection, testing, and characterization
• Demonstrated experience with composite structures and manufacturing techniques

Bonus Points

• Experience with Pressurant or Propellant tanks
• Experience with filament wound and/or AFP structures
• Passion for very big Pressurized Structures.