Senior Structural Dynamics Engineer

Structural Dynamics Engineer (NewSpace)
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Employment Type: Full-Time | On-Site
Package: Competitive Salary + Equity + Benefits + Flexible PTO

Are you a Structural Dynamics Engineer, passionate about solving spacecraft jitter, micro-vibration, and control-structure interaction challenges at the system level?

On offer is the opportunity to join a high-growth space company developing next-generation satellite platforms requiring extreme pointing stability. You’ll take technical ownership of line-of-sight stability, micro-vibration prediction, reduced-order modeling, and the interaction between flexible structures and advanced GNC algorithms.

You will be joining a team driving the future of precision spacecraft performance. You’ll build digital testbeds, architect structural-control workflows, and work across structural engineering and systems analysis to ensure high-fidelity behavior during demanding mission operations.

This position would suit a high-end structural dynamics specialist who thrives at the intersection of FEM, GNC, signal processing, and simulation automation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead micro-vibration and jitter analysis, predicting LoS stability impacts from reaction wheels, cryocoolers, mechanisms, and thermal transients.
  * Generate and validate reduced-order flex models (e.g., Craig-Bampton superelements) for GNC time-domain simulations.
  * Analyze control-structure interaction (CSI) and advise on notch filters, controller shaping, and stability margins for precision slews.
  * Architect automated workflows for Coupled Loads Analysis (CLA) and sine vibration predictions to accelerate design iterations.
  * Plan, support, and correlate modal survey tests, validating FEM fidelity and structural mass/stiffness properties.
  * Drive methodology improvements in model reduction, damping interpretation, and dataset handling.
  * Collaborate with GNC, pointing, thermal, structural, and systems teams to align performance budgets and simulation models.
  * Document analytical methods, model assumptions, and verification results.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or similar field.
  * 5+ years’ experience in structural dynamics, loads, and vibroacoustics for spacecraft.
  * Deep expertise in Nastran or Simcenter Nastran.
  * Strong understanding of signal processing and model reduction.
  * Proficiency in Python, MATLAB, or DMAP for automating analysis and processing large datasets.
  * Eligible for or willing and able to obtain a U.S. DoD Top Secret Security Clearance.

If you’re ready to lead structural dynamics for precision spacecraft platforms, apply now or send your resume to jake.payne@newspacetechnical.com