Propulsion Structural Analyst

Canada Rocket Company; Toronto; On-site; CAD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Canada Rocket Company is seeking a Propulsion Structural Analyst to join our fast-moving team in Canada. You will perform first-order calculations and run FEM analyses to define margins, assess stress, fatigue, and creep life for propulsion components, and support design decisions from ground up.

You will develop analysis tools, correlate models with test data, and contribute to anomaly investigations while advancing the propulsion and stage fluids systems of our medium-lift launch vehicle

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in structural analysis or propulsion analysis.
• Experience with Ansys Mechanical.
• Experience in fast-paced, resource-constrained development cycles.

Responsibilities

• Perform structural analysis of propulsion and stage fluid components.
• Define load cases and environments for engine operations.
• Develop FEM models to evaluate stress, deflection, buckling, and modal response.
• Assess fatigue and creep life for high-temperature components.
• Document margins of safety and stress reports.
• Support design trades with analysis-driven recommendations.
• Develop and maintain analysis tools and scripts.
• Correlate analytical models with test data and refine models.
• Develop material allowables for high-temperature alloys.

Skills

Structural analysis

Finite element analysis (FEM)

Ansys Mechanical

Cryogenic fluids

Design-build-test

Python

Education

Bachelor's degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering

Tools

NX CAD

Job description

About this position

About Canada Rocket Company

Canada Rocket Company is developing Canada's first medium-lift launch vehicle.

We are a team of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, ArianeGroup, Pangea Propulsion, Tesla, MDA, and more, bringing over a century of combined launch and space systems experience back to Canada.

Our mission is to provide reliable, independent access to space for Canada and its allies in a rapidly expanding global market.

Our approach is defined by pragmatic engineering:

• We utilize a single 725 kN engine that scales from light- to medium-lift via engine clustering
• We lean on simple, proven technologies to reach orbit faster, avoiding the pitfalls of complex or novel designs
• We test early and often, catching problems on the bench instead of at the pad

Backed by over $20M in funding secured within our first four months, including the largest all-Canadian seed round in the sector and an $8.3M Department of National Defence grant, we are moving with the speed and institutional backing required to meet Canada’s orbital launch needs.

About the role

We are looking for a Propulsion Structural Analyst who is equally proficient in performing first order calculations as they are in running FEA or developing their own analysis code. You will work across design, analysis, development, operation, and reuse scenarios in a fast-moving development environment. This is a highly technical role for someone who wants to be close to details, make consequential design decisions, and help establish the propulsion and stage fluids systems of an orbital launch vehicle program from the ground up.

What You Will Do

• Perform structural analysis of propulsion and stage fluid components including combustion chambers, nozzles, turbopumps, injectors, feed lines, and other propulsion components
• Define load cases and environments based on steady state and transient engine operations, system pressures, thermal conditions, vibration, acoustic, and aerodynamics
• Develop and run finite element models (FEM) to evaluate stress, strain, deflection, buckling, and modal response under static, dynamic, and thermal loading conditions
• Assess fatigue, fracture, and creep life for components subjected to cyclic and high-temperature loading, supporting durability and reusability requirements
• Generate margins of safety against yield, ultimate, and stability failure modes, and document findings in formal stress reports
• Support design trades and provide analysis-driven recommendations to improve weight, manufacturability, and structural robustness
• Create and maintain analysis methods, tools, and scripts
• Correlate analytical models with hot-fire, proof, vibration, and component-level test data, and refine models accordingly
• Develop and apply material allowables, including for additively manufactured and high-temperature alloys common in propulsion hardware
• Contribute to anomaly investigations and root-cause analysis when hardware behaves unexpectedly in test or flight

Qualifications

Required

• 7+ years of experience with one or more of the following:
• Structural analysis using Ansys Mechanical
• Analysis of cryogenic fluids
• Inclination toward a fast-paced, resource-constrained environment with rapid hardware development using iterative design-build-test cycles that are central to the engineering culture
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field

Preferred

• Thermal analysis proficiency
• Fluid analysis proficiency
• Turbomachinery fluid analysis proficiency
• Experience with structural analysis on liquid bipropellant rocket engines
• Functional proficiency in CAD (NX) and Python
• Exposure to complex fluid systems as well as understanding the behaviour of the mechanisms in those systems
• Advanced degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field