Senior Structural Dynamics Analyst, Deployable Antenna Structures in Arlington, Texas at E-Space

We are looking for a Senior Structural Dynamics Analyst to own the structural analysis backbone of E-Space's Integrated Antenna Structure team. The hardware is a large deployable spacecraft antenna. Once deployed, the structure is large, light, soft, geometrically nonlinear, and has its first modes at low frequency.

You will build and own the integrated finite element model of the deployed antenna assembly, predict its dynamics, correlate it against test, and flow structural requirements from the system down to the contributing teams. This is a senior individual contributor role. You will run the model yourself, not direct others who do.

This is a structural dynamics role, not a stress role. If most of your experience is static strength, fatigue and damage tolerance, or detail stress of airframe or ground structures, this is not the right fit. If you have spent your career on modes, frequency response, and making a model agree with a test for the right physical reasons, we want to hear from you.

On-site in Arlington, Texas. Hands-on bench work and test facility presence are required. Some travel between sites expected.

• Own the integrated FEM of the deployed antenna assembly. Integrate stiffness and mass properties from the component teams at whatever fidelity each can supply, and know where the combined model is weakest.
• Perform deployed-state structural performance analysis: modal survey prediction, static deflection under on-orbit loads (thermal, attitude control), and margin of safety verification.
• Develop and maintain the structural requirements allocation and error budget, flowing system-level performance requirements down to component-level stiffness, mass, and CTE requirements for each contributing team, and tracking margin consumption as the design changes.
• Lead model-test correlation at each level of the V&V test pyramid: produce pre-test predictions, update model parameters from test data only where the change is physically justified, and maintain a documented correlation record.
• Analyze antenna deployment (meaning the unfolding on orbit): deployment kinematics, tensioning loads, deployment force margins, and deployment dynamics. Provide test predictions to the Mechanical Test Engineer and work with them to separate gravity-offload rig effects from antenna behavior.
• Provide pre-test predictions and structural response interpretation for vibration and shock testing of the stowed antenna assembly, working with the Mechanical Test Engineer.
• Assess structural risk of design changes and interface deviations, and provide structural input to anomaly investigations.

• BS or MS or Ph.D. in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent.
• Structural dynamics as your primary discipline: modal analysis, frequency response, and eigenvalue methods, demonstrated in work you have done and not only listed as a skill.
• Proficiency in FEA (Nastran, ANSYS, Abaqus, or equivalent) for modal, static, and linear dynamics problems.
• Personal responsibility for at least one model-test correlation against modal or vibration test data, including a case where the model and test disagreed and you found out why.
• Ability to build and maintain a system-level integrated FEM incorporating inputs from multiple contributing teams at different fidelity levels.
• Structural analysis of flight or high-reliability hardware, including margins and requirements compliance.

• BS or MS or Ph.D. in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent.
• Structural dynamics as your primary discipline: modal analysis, frequency response, and eigenvalue methods, demonstrated in work you have done and not only listed as a skill.
• Proficiency in FEA (Nastran, ANSYS, Abaqus, or equivalent) for modal, static, and linear dynamics problems.
• Personal responsibility for at least one model-test correlation against modal or vibration test data, including a case where the model and test disagreed and you found out why.
• Ability to build and maintain a system-level integrated FEM incorporating inputs from multiple contributing teams at different fidelity levels.
• Structural analysis of flight or high-reliability hardware, including margins and requirements compliance.