Engineer - Mechanical III - Structural Analysis

Structural Verification Engineer

Application close date: Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed. At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We're working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! This role is part of Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering (ACE), supporting Blue Origin's mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The team fosters innovation and drives engineering workflows of the future, shared solutions and standards, simplicity and lower costs, and manufacturable design. As part of a hardworking team of specialists, technicians, and engineers you will lead structural verification for lightweight, deployable space hardware, helping turn requirements into robust architectures with clear margins. You will drive analysis and test correlation across relevant environments, folding material behavior, joints, tolerances, and durability into credible models and qualification plans. You will document decisions, disposition changes, and partner across disciplines and Manufacturing to ensure producibility, safe handling, and traceable flight readiness.

Special Mentions: Relocation provided Travel expected up to 25% of the time

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Perform structural analysis for deployable mechanisms across concept, design, test, and flight certification: static, modal, random/sine vibration, shock, acoustic; establish margins
• Build, validate, and maintain finite element models including contact, geometric nonlinearity, buckling, fatigue, fracture risk, transient deployment dynamics, etc.
• Develop loads and environments (acoustic, random vibe, shock, etc.); derive requirements and margins; author structural verification plans
• Develop load paths and stiffness requirements for panels, frames, harness routing, and mechanisms; drive mass optimization while meeting stiffness/frequency/life/reliability requirements.
• Analyze Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer/Plastic/metallic hybrid structures; material allowables, joints/adhesives, fastener design
• Execute dynamic analysis for deployment events; flexible-body multibody dynamics, hinge friction/stiction, latching shock, damping, and tip-off/energy management
• Perform tolerance stack and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing assessments impacting structural performance and deployment
• Support qualification test planning and execution; define test levels, fixtures, instrumentation, and correlation strategy
• Reduce and correlate test data to models; update allowables and model fidelity
• Provide inputs to thermalstructural coupling and deployment dynamics teams
• Author analysis reports for program reviews; sign off drawings and change requests
• Collaborate with Manufacturing on DFM constraints, handling loads, and tooling stiffness
• Mentor junior engineers; perform peer reviews; provide best practice guidance
• Work effectively in a scrappy cross-disciplinary R&D environment with a geographically distributed team

Minimum Qualifications: BS in ME/Aero (or equivalent) 5-8+ years structural analysis for aerospace hardware Experience in relevant FEA tools (i.e. NASTRAN/Abaqus/ANSYS/HyperMesh): static, modal, random/sine vibe, shock, acoustic Experience in CFRP/metal hybrid analysis: laminate theory, allowables, bonded/bolted joints, fastener design Proficiency understanding of FEM modeling techniques (boundary conditions, bolted connections, contact, verification methods, etc.) Experience generating loads/environments and deriving structural requirements/margins Test planning (levels, fixtures, instrumentation) and correlation

Preferred Qualifications: