Composites Design Engineer for Spaceplane (Rapid Reuse)

Icehouseventures; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Dawn Aerospace seeks a Composites Design Engineer to take concepts through to manufactured, tested and flight-ready structures. You’ll design primary and secondary airframe components, develop laminate schedules, and generate tooling concepts and docs for rapid, robust integration.

Work alongside aerospace engineers in a fast-paced environment, ensuring designs are practical and manufacturable while supporting testing campaigns and flight activities.

Qualifications

• Degree in aerospace or related field with practical composites experience.
• Experience designing composite airframe structures and assemblies.
• Ability to develop laminate schedules and manufacturing drawings.
• Experience with design releases and detailed drawings.

Responsibilities

• Design primary and secondary composite airframe structures (fuselage, wings, control surfaces).
• Develop laminate schedules, tooling concepts, fixtures and engineering docs.
• Perform structural sizing, trade studies and design optimisation.
• Collaborate with manufacturing, test and flight operations to ensure manufacturability.
• Support structural testing, qualification activities and flight campaigns.
• Coordinate with aerodynamics, systems, avionics and propulsion teams.
• Improve engineering processes and standards.

Skills

Composite materials knowledge

Analytical problem solving

Verbal and written communication

Multidisciplinary collaboration

Practical engineering execution

Education

Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics or related field

3+ years in designing composite structures (aerospace/aviation/high-performance)

Tools

CATIA

Siemens NX

SolidWorks

Job description

Dawn Aerospace seeks a Composites Design Engineer to take concepts through to manufactured, tested and flight-ready structures. You’ll design primary and secondary airframe components, develop laminate schedules, and generate tooling concepts and docs for rapid, robust integration.

Work alongside aerospace engineers in a fast-paced environment, ensuring designs are practical and manufacturable while supporting testing campaigns and flight activities.