Staff Propulsion Analysis Engineer

As a Staff Propulsion Analysis Engineer, you will primarily focus on structural analyses across all our engines. You will be exposed to all systems on our engines and the unique challenges each component presents. We are looking for experienced analysts who bring new skills and best practices from their prior experience to Ursa and who, in time, will mentor younger employees as the team grows. You will be expected to assess risks posed by the hardware and to provide proactive feedback to our design team regarding how to improve their components based on the results of your work. Lastly, as Ursa ramps up its production rate and begins development on new engine platforms, you will be expected to assess nonconforming hardware and introduce approaches that could improve our team’s efficiency.  

Primary Responsibilities

• Evaluate designs through static, thermal, dynamic, fatigue, and fracture analyses and provide recommendations when needed to achieve our objectives.
• Identify potential design improvements and collaborate with other engineering teams to develop our engines while ensuring they meet our system-level requirements.
• Work closely with our test team to request instrumentation necessary to anchor our analytical models.
• Improve upon Ursa’s analytical methods and seek out new approaches and tools.
• Provide professional development, mentorship, and technical guidance to peers.

Minimum Experience/Requirements

• B.S. degree in Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or a comparable field.
• 8+ years of structural analysis experience.
• Experience performing Finite Element Analysis (FEA / FEM) using commercial codes (e.g., ANSYS, Abaqus, of NASTRAN-based solvers).
• Thermal-Structural static analysis (particularly dealing with nonlinear materials and large strains).
• High Cycle Fatigue Analysis (HCF, crack initiation predicted by a stress-life / SN approach).
• Low Cycle Fatigue Analysis (LCF, crack initiation predicted by a strain-life / e-N approach).
• Programming experience (Python ideal, but MATLAB or other high-level languages acceptable).
• Basic experience with 3D CAD software (Creo and NX are ideal).
• Experience with complex fluid-mechanical systems - our engines are the product of integrated combustors, turbomachinery, and control systems, all of which must be well understood and optimized.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, startup environment.

Ideal Experience/Requirements

• M.S. or PhD degree in mechanical, aerospace engineering, or a comparable field.
• 10+ years of analysis experience
• Professional experience in rocketry or turbomachinery.
• Experience on failure investigations and dispositioning damaged hardware.
• Multidisciplinary fluids analysis experience.  e.g. Hand-Calcs, CFD: (ANSYS CFX or Fluent), 1-D fluid-network modeling: (SINDA/FLUINT, GFSSP, ROCETS), CEA, TDK

Colorado law requires us to tell you the base compensation range of this role, which is $130,000 - $180,000, determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities. What we can’t quantify for you are the exciting challenges, supportive team, and amazing culture we enjoy. Click here for more information about our awesome benefits.