Blue Origin

Sr. Structural Engineer

Blue Origin$121K — $169K *
Aerospace & Defense
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • B.S. degree in Mechanical or Aerospace engineering or equivalent field
  • 5+ years of experience in structural design for vehicles or structures
  • Strong skills in mechanical design using 3D CAD software
  • Proficiency in geometric dimensioning and tolerance (GD&T)
  • Experience with structural analysis using standard software
  • Strong communication and documentation skills
  • Must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident

Responsibilities

  • Design and analyze structural components for launch vehicles
  • Conduct research and trade studies to meet performance targets
  • Create CAD models and detail drawings for assemblies
  • Develop test plans and documentation for flight hardware
  • Lead subsystem testing and analyze test data
  • Review team members' technical work for design improvements
  • Engage with manufacturing during critical phases and resolve issues

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Paid parental leave and short/long-term disability
  • 401(k) with up to 5% company match
  • Stock options for all regular employees
  • Paid Time Off: up to four weeks per year and 14 paid holidays
  • Education Support Program
  • Potential for bonuses based on contributions
Full Job Description
Application close date:
Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.

This role supports the development and operations of New Glenn, a single-configuration, heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle capable of routinely carrying people and payloads to low-Earth orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, cislunar, and beyond. Its first stage is fully reusable, and the vehicle was designed from the beginning to be human-capable.

This role is a part of the Lunar Customer Programs team for the New Glenn Advanced Customer Programs. As part of the New Glenn business unit, this team develops unique solutions for New Glenn's government, Lunar, Orbital Reef, and crewed spacecraft customers among others.

As part of a small, hardworking team of experts, you will be responsible for the development of unique structural design solutions supporting New Glenn's ambitious customer base. This position will directly further Blue Origin's mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth, building sustainable infrastructure for our transport of crew and cargo from Earth to the lunar surface and LEO destinations. In this role, you will own hardware through the full life cycle from design, analysis, manufacturing, and test.

We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, inventiveness, and dedication to safety and quality to build the road to space. Passion for our mission and vision is required!

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
  • Design, analysis, development, and testing of primary and secondary structures, including composites and metallic piece parts, as well as integrated structural assemblies
  • Execute research, configuration development, and trade studies to meet performance, schedule, and cost targets
  • Create CAD models, detail part drawings, assemblies, installations, and interface control documents
  • Apply practical approaches to hardware fabrication and cost impacts
  • Create test plans, specifications, and other documentation for the development and production of flight hardware
  • Subsystem test planning, execution, data reduction and analysis, and test data review
  • Review technical work of team members (drawings, analyses, test plans) to identify design improvements and ensure quality standards before release
  • Balance customer solutions with documented, repeatable processes
  • Proactively engage with manufacturing and have regular floor presence during critical build phases
  • Identify design or manufacturing issues immediately and lead root cause analyses for moderate-scope NCs
  • Maintain visual project status indicators (activity schedule, budget and technical status) for team transparency
  • Work with multi-functional teams that are responsible for selecting materials, manufacturing processes, and suppliers to produce world-class aerospace hardware
  • Respond to customer-driven schedules
  • Manage multiple concurrent projects with attention to team capacity and sustainable pace
  • Develop junior engineers into future technical leads through progressive delegation


Minimum Qualifications
  • Minimum of a B.S. degree in Mechanical or Aerospace engineering or equivalent technical field
  • 5+ years related experience in structural design and analysis of automotive, aircraft, spacecraft, or launch vehicle structures
  • Strong mechanical design and integration skills using 3D CAD software (Creo, CATIA V5, SolidWorks, AutoDesk or other industry standard software).
  • Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerance analysis (ASME Y14.5) proficiency
  • Structural design of metallic components and assemblies
  • Vehicle load path distribution, and first order strength assessment and sizing
  • Material selection, compatibility and manufacturing techniques
  • Demonstrated ability to conduct structural analysis using hand-calculation and finite element techniques, using any industry standard software: Ansys, Nastran, Optistruct, LS Dyna, Hypermesh, Hypersizer
  • Strong presentation, documentation and communications skills, with the ability to present the solution and build consensus among customers and New Glenn stakeholders
  • Passion for building flight hardware and creativity for inventing new technology.
  • Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Preferred Qualifications
  • M.S. degree in Mechanical or Aerospace engineering or equivalent technical field
  • Ability to iterate structural designs quickly while mission architecture and customer requirements are in flux, making sound engineering judgments with incomplete data
  • Experience documenting and standardizing design processes, creating reusable templates and analysis workflows.
  • Experience on launch vehicles, aircraft, or similar in one or more of the following areas:
    • Design of minimal-mass structure
    • Design of composite structures and structural adhesive bonds
    • Design of cryogenic structures or propellant tanks.
    • Design of baffles, anti-vortex devices, and other propellant management devices.
    • Design of Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) such as spray on foam insulation (SOFI) or multi-layer insulation (MLI)
  • Experience with full product lifecycle of design, test, and production.
  • Knowledge of design and fabrication considerations for composite structures.
  • Experience with Creo (Pro/E) Wildfire 5 or greater, Windchill 10.
  • Experience with Optimization and DOE methods as applied to design, analysis, and testing


Base Pay Range for:
CA applicants is $121,023.00 - $169,432.20WA applicants is $121,023.00 - $169,432.20

Other site ranges may differ

Benefits
  • Benefits include: Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
  • Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
  • Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.
  • Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion. Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation. Please check with your recruiter for more details.


Don't meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At Blue Origin, we are dedicated to building an authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every desired qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

About Blue Origin

Blue Origin is an aerospace company that develops rockets and spacecraft for commercial and government customers. The company's products include the New Shepard suborbital vehicle and the New Glenn orbital rocket. Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos and is headquartered in Kent, Washington.
Learn more about Blue Origin
Size
3,000 employees
Industry
Founded
2000

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Blue Origin

More Aerospace & Defense Jobs

Find similar Sr. Structural Engineer jobs: