Senior Stress & Thermal Analyst - Fixed-Wing UAS

Senior Stress & Thermal Analyst - Own structural and thermal analysis for next-generation unmanned aircraft Fort Worth, Texas | On-site Opportunity Summary Join a growing aerospace and defense company designing and producing fixed-wing unmanned aircraft for military and commercial customers. We are adding a senior analyst to own detailed structural and thermal analysis of our full aircraft as the airframe evolves. Your first priority will be stress: sizing and verifying airframe structures through ongoing design changes. You will also confirm that thermal performance in flight matches predictions, including for avionics hardware developed in-house. You will give design teams fast, defensible answers that keep hardware moving from concept through flight test and into production.

Our ideal hire brings depth in both stress and thermal analysis. Candidates who are strong in one discipline, especially stress, and have a working command of the other are also encouraged to apply.

About Us We are a venture-backed aerospace and defense company building practical, producible unmanned aircraft systems. Our engineers work across the full aircraft lifecycle, from early concept and prototyping through flight testing, rate production, and fielded support. The focus is on platforms that move quickly from development into operational use, built by a small team where every engineer has real ownership.

Job Duties

• Own detailed structural analysis of the full aircraft, including airframe, wings, control surfaces, launch and recovery hardware, and payload installations
• Re-analyze and clear structures quickly as the airframe design changes
• Build and run finite element models covering static strength, buckling, modal, random vibration, and shock load cases for composite and metallic structures
• Develop loads, margins of safety, and formal analysis reports that support design reviews and flight clearance
• Complement FEA with classical hand calculations for joints, fasteners, bonded interfaces, lugs, and fittings
• Analyze thermal environments for engine bays, avionics enclosures, batteries, power electronics, and sensor payloads across conduction, convection, and radiation
• Compare predicted and measured thermal performance, including for internally developed avionics hardware, and close the gaps
• Recommend cooling, heat sinking, ducting, and insulation solutions and confirm them against operating and environmental limits
• Plan and support structural and thermal testing, then correlate models to measured strain, deflection, and temperature data
• Assess fatigue life and damage tolerance for repeated flight and launch loads
• Work alongside design, propulsion, avionics, manufacturing, and flight test engineers to reach light, producible designs
• Disposition nonconforming hardware and support root cause investigations from test and field events
• Set up analysis methods, standards, and tools as the engineering team grows

Qualifications

• 7+ years of structural (stress) analysis and/or thermal analysis experience on aircraft, UAS, missiles, spacecraft, or similar flight hardware
• Strong FEA skills using tools such as Nastran/Patran, Femap, ANSYS Mechanical, or Abaqus
• For thermal-focused candidates, hands-on modeling experience with tools such as Thermal Desktop, ANSYS Icepak or Fluent, or FloTHERM
• Experience analyzing both composite and metallic structures
• Solid command of classical hand methods and the engineering judgment to sanity-check FEA results
• Track record of writing clear analysis reports that support design reviews, test, and flight readiness
• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline
• Must be a U.S. Person as defined by ITAR

Preferred Experience

• Combined stress and thermal analysis responsibility in a single role
• Fixed-wing UAS, small aircraft, or tactical air vehicle programs
• Test correlation using strain gauges, thermocouples, and vibration or shock testing
• Launch load analysis for rail or catapult launch, plus recovery and landing impact
• Fatigue and damage tolerance analysis
• Composite laminate analysis and bonded joint design
• Thermal management of piston or turbine engine installations, high-power electronics, and battery packs
• Python or MATLAB scripting to automate analysis workflows
• Prior work in a startup or rapid prototyping environment
• Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline

Why Join Us

• Serve as a core analysis voice on aircraft moving quickly from prototype to production
• See your analysis go straight into hardware, test, and flight
• Broad scope across airframes, propulsion installations, launch systems, and payloads
• Small, high-ownership engineering team with direct access to leadership
• Room to grow into leading the analysis function as the company scales
• 401(k) with company matching
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off

Compensation Details $140,000 - $210,000