About the roleCanada Rocket Company is building a sovereign launch capability for Canada. We're looking for a Senior / Principal Structural Engineer to lead the hands-on design, analysis, development, and validation of critical structural hardware on our launch vehicle. This role is focused on real hardware ownership: translating system requirements into robust, manufacturable, flight-ready structures and driving them from early concept through test and flight.
Depending on background and program need, you will own major structural elements associated with either thrust structures and engine load paths, or propellant tank structures and their interfaces. You will work across design, analysis, materials, manufacturing, integration, and test to solve difficult structural problems in a fast-moving development environment. This is a highly technical role for someone who wants to be close to the hardware, make consequential design decisions, and help establish the structural backbone of an orbital launch vehicle program from the ground up. Our engineers and team-members are empowered to make real-time decisions, solve complex problems on the fly, and own end-to-end processes to support Canada Rocket Company's rapid pace of development.
What you'll do- Own the design and development of structural hardware.
- Translate vehicle and subsystem level requirements into structural concepts, detailed designs, and verified hardware that meet mass, strength, stiffness, manufacturability, and reliability targets.
- Perform and guide structural sizing across load cases.
- Develop load paths, joint concepts, interfaces, and structural layouts for highly loaded aerospace hardware, using sound first-principles engineering judgment supported by analysis and test.
- Create and drive structural analyses and use test data to correlate models, refine designs, and close the loop between prediction and reality.
- Partner closely with propulsion, fluids, avionics, manufacturing, integration, and test teams to ensure structural solutions are practical, well integrated, and executable.
- Drive material, process, and manufacturing decisions for the hardware you own, balancing performance, producibility, schedule, quality, and cost.
- Support hardware through the full rapid development cycle, including concept trades, design reviews, drawing release, fabrication support, test planning, test execution, anomaly investigation, and design iteration.
- Contribute to the structural development approach, including design philosophy, analysis methods, test strategy, and engineering standards, in partnership with the Head of Structures.
- Support other engineers and help raise the technical bar of the structures team.
QualificationsRequired- 7+ years of experience in structural design, analysis, and development for aerospace or similarly demanding hardware; higher expectations apply for principal-level candidates.
- Strong experience designing and developing primary or highly loaded structural hardware in environments where mass, performance, and manufacturability all matter.
- Deep understanding of structural and thermal mechanics, including strength of materials, stability, buckling, fatigue, fracture, joints, load paths, and structural dynamics.
- Demonstrated ability to take hardware from concept through detailed design, manufacturing, test, and validation. Hand on experience with manufactured hardware.
- Strong capability with both first-principles analysis and finite element methods, and sound judgment on when each is appropriate.
- Experience working closely with manufacturing and test teams to translate designs into real hardware and resolve issues uncovered during build and test.
- Ability to operate with a high degree of ownership in a fast-paced, cross-functional engineering environment.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, especially across analysis, design, manufacturing, and integration boundaries.
Preferred - Direct experience with launch vehicle primary structures, propulsion structures, thrust frames, tank structures, pressure vessels, interstages, fairings, or similarly demanding aerospace hardware.
- Experience with cryogenic structures, thin-walled shell structures, welded tanks, domes, ring frames, thrust takeout structures, or engine-adjacent load-bearing hardware.
- Hands-on experience with metallic aerospace structures, weldments, machined structures, formed bodies, bonded assemblies, or other relevant manufacturing approaches.
- Experience correlating structural models to test data from proof, burst, modal, vibration, acoustic, or combined-load test campaigns.
- Familiarity with rapid design-build-test hardware development environments.
- Bachelor's or advanced degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field.
