Aircraft Fatigue & Damage Tolerance Engineer

Donatech Corporation; Waco (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Donatech Corporation is seeking an Aircraft Fatigue and Damage Tolerance Engineer to lead structural fatigue and damage tolerance analysis for aircraft modifications. The role includes design support, preparing airworthiness documentation, and determining critical load paths to ensure safe operation.

The candidate will model stress concentrations, load distributions, and usage environments, while developing tailored mission profiles for life calculations.

Qualifications

• BSME, BSAE, BSCE with at least 10 years of relevant work experience.
• MSME, MSAE, MSCE with at least 9 years of relevant work experience.
• Ability to generate free body diagrams, determine reaction forces, and calculate internal load distributions, local stress concentrations, and operating usage environments.
• Willingness to travel and obtain a security clearance.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and general computer knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Perform structural fatigue and damage tolerance analysis of aircraft modifications.
• Prepare technical documentation to ensure airworthiness.
• Determine critical load paths in primary aircraft structure.
• Assess local stress concentrations and load distributions.
• Develop mission profiles and usage spectra for modified aircraft for life calculations.

Skills

Fatigue analysis

Damage tolerance

Structural analysis

Design support

Load calculations

Free body diagrams

Technical documentation

Communication

Mentor engineers

Security clearance

Education

BSME, BSAE, BSCE

MSME, MSAE, MSCE

Tools

Microsoft Office

CAD/FEA tools

AFGROW

NASGRO

Job description

Position would require the candidate to be a W2 employee of Donatech. US Citizenship Required.

Aircraft Fatigue and Damage Tolerance Engineer responsible for performing structural fatigue and damage tolerance analysis of aircraft modifications, including design support, and preparation of technical documentation necessary to ensure airworthiness. Determination of critical load paths in primary aircraft structure resulting from applied and induced operational loads, as well as the determining the local stress concentrations, internal fastener load distributions, operational usage environments and design allowables. Development of tailored mission profiles and usage spectra for modified aircraft for use in calculation of service life

Skills/Experience

• Qualifications:
• BSME, BSAE, BSCE and minimum 10 years of relevant work experience
• MSME, MSAE, MSCE and minimum 9 years of relevant work experience.
• Must be able to generate free body diagrams, determine reaction forces, and calculate internal load distributions, local stress concentrations, and operational usage environments
• Must be able to travel as necessary.
• Must be able to obtain a security clearance.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office, and have general computer knowledge.
• Must be able to work any shift, weekends, and overtime as required.
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Willingness to mentor younger engineers
• Effective leadership qualities

Preferred Skills

• Experience with predicting crack initiation lives and running standard crack growth programs; e.g., AFGROW, NASGRO
• Working knowledge of one programming language
• CAD or analysis (FEA) tools exposure, and/or experience in mechanical design or analysis structures and mechanisms
• Working knowledge of both military (Mil Standard) and civilian (14 CFRs) certification regulations and generating substantiation data to demonstrate compliance
• Familiarity with transducer instrumentation, data collection and or automation and software programming for numerical analysis
• Working knowledge on how to develop the Airworthiness Limitations section of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness for a structural modification
• Experience with standard Nondestructive Inspection (NDI) methods and corresponding crack growth detectable flaw sizes