Marine Structures Engineer II: Sea Trials, Hands-On

Bulwark Dynamics; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 105,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity: Stock options

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Paid time off

Job summary

Bulwark Dynamics is seeking a Structural Engineer II - Marine Structures to own design, fabrication, testing, and sea-trial readiness of vessel structural systems for autonomous marine platforms. You will develop composite and metallic structures, perform load definition, analyze with FEA, and work directly with fabricators to bring hardware into operation.

This role emphasizes hands-on ownership, rapid iteration, and close collaboration with naval architecture, mechanical, actuation,

Qualifications

• 3+ years of structural, mechanical, marine, naval architecture, or closely related engineering experience.
• End-to-end ownership of physical hardware from design through fabrication, integration, test, and iteration.
• Hands-on experience designing mechanically loaded structures or assemblies for vessels or other demanding environments.
• Experience with FRP composites or lightweight structures, including manufacturing methods and failure modes.
• Strong structural-analysis judgment across load paths, stress/strain, bending, shear, torsion, buckling, fatigue, shock, impact, and material behavior.
• Ability to use first-principles calculations and appropriate analysis methods to make timely engineering decisions.
• Working experience with FEA; tool-agnostic; experience with ANSYS, Abaqus, Nastran, FEMAP, SolidWorks Simulation, or equivalents.
• Ability to interpret and create engineering drawings and CAD models with consideration of manufacturability, weight, and cost.
• Comfort spending significant time in shop/test environments with fabrication oversight, prototype assembly, and sea trials.
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, Civil/Structural Engineering, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Own vessel structural systems from initial layout and load definition through fabrication, testing, sea trials, and design iteration.
• Develop hull and structural layouts, scantlings and sizing, material selections, attachment strategies, and DFM decisions.
• Design lightweight, manufacturable composite and metallic structures including primary structures, brackets, mounts, foundations, supports, and interfaces.
• Evaluate FRP laminates and metallic structures for material behavior, load paths, connections, and manufacturing constraints.
• Translate loads into practical load cases, boundary conditions, design margins and hardware decisions.
• Use first-principles calculations and FEA to guide decisions and optimize weight and real-world performance.
• Correlate analysis with physical test results and iterate designs.
• Collaborate with technicians, fabricators, suppliers, shipyards during fabrication and testing.
• Document assumptions, load cases, analyses and design decisions with rigor for rapid, responsible progress.
• Report to CTO and own decisions across structural layout, sizing, materials, weight, and DFM.

Skills

End-to-end ownership

Hands-on design

FEA

CAD drawings

Fabrication oversight

Composite/FRP design

Weight optimization

Naval architecture knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, Civil/Structural Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

ANSYS

Abaqus

Nastran

Job description

Bulwark Dynamics is seeking a Structural Engineer II - Marine Structures to own design, fabrication, testing, and sea-trial readiness of vessel structural systems for autonomous marine platforms. You will develop composite and metallic structures, perform load definition, analyze with FEA, and work directly with fabricators to bring hardware into operation.

This role emphasizes hands-on ownership, rapid iteration, and close collaboration with naval architecture, mechanical, actuation,