Lead Dynamics Engineer, Spacecraft Vibration & Loads

K2 Space; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 235,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Life insurance

Parental leave

Job summary

K2 Space seeks a senior dynamics engineer to own loads and environments for satellites from ground to on‑orbit operations. You will build tools, run simulations, mentor engineers, and guide test programs to ensure mass‑produced spacecraft meet demanding performance goals.

Responsibilities include cross‑discipline analysis, model development, and collaboration with design teams and customers to deliver reliable payload products and documented insights for program success.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, or mathematics
• 8+ years of work experience in dynamics from industry or academia

Responsibilities

• Drive dynamic testing across component to stack level, including planning, analysis, and model correlation
• Lead innovation on cross-disciplinary analysis and test methodologies
• Own and evolve spacecraft dynamics approaches to optimize for the company’s business
• Develop time- and frequency-domain physics models using finite element analysis (e.g., Nastran) and Python, and set technical direction for shared tooling
• Create software tools to support data processing and simulation frameworks
• Collaborate with design engineers, analysts, and external customers to develop payload products
• Apply first principles in developing frameworks for both dynamics and non-dynamics analyses
• Lead code reviews for simulation and analysis tools
• Utilize analysis and test to provide data-driven engineering guidance and decisions
• Write high quality technical documentation of tests and simulations
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior and mid-level dynamics engineers
• Derive loads, environments, and other dynamics-driven design and test criteria for payload and hardware teams, including vibration, shock, and jitter maximum predicted environments and response-limit derivation
• Own coupled loads analysis (CLA) for vehicle programs, including bus-and-payload superelement/Craig-Bampton model builds for ascent and on-orbit dynamic environments
• Lead jitter and pointing performance analysis, including Monte Carlo dispersion modeling and dynamic coupling with GNC control loops
• Direct vibroacoustic analysis, including patch-method framework development, and lead acoustic testing of the vehicle
• Drive definition of vehicle- and stack-level modal test and analysis methodologies, including ground and flight test correlation

Skills

Dynamics engineering

Finite element analysis

Python programming

Multibody dynamics

Vibration analysis

GNC coupling analysis

Education

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, or mathematics

Tools

Nastran

FEMAP

Python

LS-DYNA

Job description

K2 Space seeks a senior dynamics engineer to own loads and environments for satellites from ground to on‑orbit operations. You will build tools, run simulations, mentor engineers, and guide test programs to ensure mass‑produced spacecraft meet demanding performance goals.

Responsibilities include cross‑discipline analysis, model development, and collaboration with design teams and customers to deliver reliable payload products and documented insights for program success.