Opto-Mechanical Analysis Engineer – Spaceflight Hardware

Optical Society of Southern California; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Impulse Space, a leader in spacecraft manufacturing, seeks an Opto-Mechanical Analysis Engineer to advance structural and thermal-elastic analyses of optical payloads. You will develop and maintain finite element models, assess alignment sensitivity, and ensure hardware survives launch and operates reliably in orbit.

The role emphasizes collaboration with optical engineers, working with NX, SolidWorks, Nastran, ANSYS, SigFIT, and related tools.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Applied Mechanics, Physics, Optical Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 3+ years of demonstrated experience with structural analysis, mechanical design analysis, FEA, or thermal-mechanical analysis through professional work.
• Strong understanding of mechanics of materials, dynamics, heat transfer, vibration, and structural behavior.
• Experience with CAD or FEA tools such as NX, SolidWorks, Nastran, ANSYS, SigFIT, Femap, Simcenter 3D, or equivalent.
• Ability to work with mechanical drawings, material properties, fasteners, tolerances, and physical hardware constraints.

Responsibilities

• Perform structural and thermal analysis on optical hardware.
• Develop and maintain finite element models for flight and development hardware.
• Support Structural-Thermal-Optical Performance analysis by working with optical engineers to understand alignment sensitivity, detector placement tolerances, boresight stability, wavefront error, and pointing requirements.

Skills

FEA experience

Opto-mechanical analysis

Structural mechanics

Vibration analysis

Thermal analysis

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical/Aerospace/Optical Engineering or related

Tools

NX

SolidWorks

Nastran

ANSYS

SigFIT

Femap

Simcenter 3D

Job description

Impulse Space, a leader in spacecraft manufacturing, seeks an Opto-Mechanical Analysis Engineer to advance structural and thermal-elastic analyses of optical payloads. You will develop and maintain finite element models, assess alignment sensitivity, and ensure hardware survives launch and operates reliably in orbit.

The role emphasizes collaboration with optical engineers, working with NX, SolidWorks, Nastran, ANSYS, SigFIT, and related tools.