Lead FEA Engineer, RF & Aerospace (Hybrid)

FIRST RF; Boulder (CO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

4 weeks PTO/year

Hybrid work model

Tuition reimbursement

401(k) match up to 6%

Health, dental, vision

Job summary

FIRST RF is seeking a highly motivated Mechanical Engineer with expertise in FEA methods to advance RF and antenna systems for defense and aerospace. The role emphasizes structural, thermal, dynamic, and environmental simulations for rugged environments across land, sea, air, and space platforms.

You will collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to predict mechanical challenges before hardware builds, ensuring mission-critical performance and reliability for customers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering required.
• 5+ years of relevant mechanical engineering experience in aerospace/defense/electronics packaging.
• Experience performing structural, thermal, and vibration simulation on complex assemblies.
• Proficiency with simulation tools: Altair/Siemens, SolidWorks, MSC Nastran, NX Nastran, ABAQUS.

Responsibilities

• Lead structural, thermal, and dynamic simulations for RF systems and electronic assemblies.
• Perform FEA to evaluate thermal performance, structural integrity, shock and vibration survivability, fatigue/durability.
• Develop and validate simulation models with test data.
• Collaborate with RF, mechanical, electrical and systems engineers to optimize designs.
• Support design and packaging of high-reliability electronics for aerospace/defense.
• Participate in technical and customer design reviews and present results.
• Create and maintain engineering docs, analysis reports and test correlation data.
• Support root-cause investigations during integration and test.
• Ensure ITAR compliance and adherence to MIL-STD-810/DO-160.

Skills

FEA concepts & methodologies

Thermal management

Shock & vibration

ASME Y14.5 / GD&T

SolidWorks

NX Nastran

MSC Nastran

ABAQUS

Altiar/Siemens tools

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks Simulation

MSC Nastran

NX Nastran

ABAQUS

Job description

FIRST RF is seeking a highly motivated Mechanical Engineer with expertise in FEA methods to advance RF and antenna systems for defense and aerospace. The role emphasizes structural, thermal, dynamic, and environmental simulations for rugged environments across land, sea, air, and space platforms.

You will collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to predict mechanical challenges before hardware builds, ensuring mission-critical performance and reliability for customers.