Principal Dynamics Engineer

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 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by over $1 billion in total funding from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, ICONIQ, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and T. Rowe Price — and with over $1 billion in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers, we're mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.

The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today's and tomorrow's massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.

With multiple launches in 2027 and plans to scale to 100 satellites a year, we're Building Bigger — helping develop the solar system and build toward a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a high-growth Series D-funded company, we'd love for you to apply.

The Role

As a technical leader on our growing dynamics team, you will own the successful derivation of loads and environments for K2 Space satellites during ground transportation, launch, deployment, and on-orbit operation. You will build software tools and establish simulation workflows to support a variety of analyses in frequency and time domains. Within your first couple of months, you will devise development testing to correlate physics models with measured data. You will also own qualification and acceptance testing of satellite hardware at the component and vehicle level. As we continue to refine our designs and scale for the future, you will set technical direction, mentor junior engineers, and deliver well-derived requirements and engineering insights to make reliable and mass-producible spacecraft.

Responsibilities

• Drive the definition and execution of dynamic testing at the component, subsystem, vehicle, and stack level, including test planning and coordination, test 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 custom-built software (e.g., Python), and set technical direction for shared analysis tooling, including version control and continuous-integration practices for analysis and test-data pipelines
• 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, contributing to the growth of the analysis team
• 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 (e.g., NASA 7004C), and develop new response-limiting methodologies as needed
• Own coupled loads analysis (CLA) for vehicle programs, including bus-and-payload superelement/Craig-Bampton model builds for ascent and on-orbit dynamic environments, through test-level definition
• 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

Qualifications

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

Nice to have

• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, or mathematics
• Strong understanding of low and high frequency dynamics (vibration, acoustics, shock, modal testing)
• Deep experience with testing and measurements
• Deep experience with finite element analysis software (e.g. FEMAP, Nastran)
• Strong experience in software development in Python
• Deep knowledge of digital signal processing, statistics, and structural mechanics
• Capable of identifying and solving complex problems with little to no supervision or direction
• Excellent communication skills of analysis and test insights.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, unstructured start-up environment.
• Experience with coupled loads analysis (CLA) and Craig-Bampton/superelement model reduction techniques
• Experience with jitter and pointing performance analysis, including Monte Carlo methods for dispersion modeling
• Familiarity with rigid-body dynamics and GNC-coupled analysis, including dynamic coupling with controllers and pointing impacts
• Experience with multibody dynamics simulation, including rigid-body dynamics and familiarity with Lagrangian formulations; familiarity with LS-DYNA is a plus
• Experience with vibroacoustic analysis (e.g., patch, diffuse-field, Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA, e.g., Wave6), or Boundary Element Method (BEM))
• Familiarity with HALT/HASS testing and dynamics-driven PCBA-level failure mechanisms (e.g., solder joint fatigue, component lead flexure)
• Experience building and maintaining shared analysis tooling, including version control and continuous-integration practices

Compensation and Benefits:

• Base salary range for this role is $190,000 - $235,000 + equity in the company
• Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks

If you don’t meet 100% of the preferred skills and experience, we encourage you to still apply! Building a spacecraft unlike any other requires a team unlike any other and non-traditional career twists and turns are encouraged!

If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.

Export Compliance

As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”

The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.