Structural Engineer - Building Systems / DFMA

Reframe; Billerica (MA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Reframe is transforming housing through modular, factory‑built systems. As a Senior Structural Engineer, you will own the structural backbone across walls, floors, roofs, and connections, balancing strength, cost, and manufacturability while coordinating with architects, EORs, and factory teams.

You will lead structural packages for priority projects, drive design rules into models and shop documentation, and help embed structural logic in our software toolchain to enable faster, safer

Qualifications

• 7+ years of structural engineering experience on building projects, ideally including modular or repeatable housing
• Experience coordinating with architects, MEP, fabricators, and field teams
• Strong grasp of wood/light‑gauge or mixed‑material structural systems and code knowledge
• Familiarity with design software and ability to translate concepts into manufacturable details

Responsibilities

• Own the structural system for our platform and define standard assemblies across walls, floors, roofs, and connections
• Bridge design, modeling, and manufacturing with architects and modelers, encoding rules in models and shop docs
• Lead structural engineering on priority projects and prepare packages for external engineers and inspectors
• Tighten the loop between design, factory, and field by diagnosing root causes and updating details and standards
• Coordinate with EORs and consultants to align on performance criteria and cost trade-offs
• Contribute to platform‑level system studies and co‑lead investigations into new structural concepts
• Prototype automated structural optimization workflows and help define how models interact with analysis tools

Skills

Structural engineering

Modular housing

Cross-functional collaboration

Design optimization

Cost & manufacturability

Education

MS in Structural Engineering

Tools

Revit

Onshape

Tekla

RISA/ETABS

Job description

ABOUT US

Reframe Systems is a Physical AI and robotics company on a mission to make high-performance housing attainable and abundant in the communities where people want to live. Through our vertically integrated delivery model and highly automated microfactories, we deliver climate-resilient homes and buildings with greater speed and predictability than traditional construction.

Our volumetric modular buildings are produced in our Andover, MA microfactory, with a growing pipeline across North America and a new microfactory on the way. We are building a system that balances repeatability with site-responsive design, enabling homes adaptable to each site, community, and customer need. Our cross-disciplinary team brings together architecture, robotics, design engineering, software, factory operations, and field delivery to change how housing gets delivered.

We’re reimagining the future of housing through a smarter and more sustainable system that empowers people to live better. Come build it with us.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own the structural system for our platform

  • Define standard structural assemblies for walls, floors, roofs, stairs, and connections that balance strength, stiffness, cost, and manufacturability.

  • Set design rules, load paths, typical details, and tolerances that can be reused across products and projects.

• Bridge design, modeling, and manufacturing

  • Partner with architects and modelers to translate architectural intent into structurally rational, factory‑buildable systems.

  • Work with our Onshape Modeling / FeatureScript teams so structural rules are encoded in models, automation, and shop documentation (not just in isolated details).

• Lead structural engineering on key projects

  • Develop internal structural schemes and calculations for priority projects before they go to the Engineer of Record.

  • Prepare clear, well‑structured packages for external structural engineers and third‑party inspectors, and drive efficient review cycles.

• Tighten the loop between design, factory, and field

  • Diagnose structural root causes behind issues like cracking, misfits, or tolerance clashes in factory and field.

  • Turn lessons learned from the floor and jobsite into updated details, standards, and rules that prevent recurrence.

• Manage and level‑up external partners

  • Coordinate with EORs and other consultants to align on performance criteria, details, and assumptions.

  • Push for designs that are safe and code‑compliant without unnecessary over‑design, and quantify trade‑offs in cost and manufacturability.

• Contribute to platform‑level system studies

  • Co‑lead investigations into new structural concepts and their implications for cost, throughput, carbon, and field performance.

  • Work with systems and MEP engineering to rationalize penetrations, chases, and integrated assemblies.

• Prototype automated structural optimization workflows

  • Work with modeling and software teams to design simple, repeatable optimization studies for key framing systems (for example: minimizing steel tonnage subject to drift limits, or comparing lateral systems across cost and constructability).

  • Help define how structural models, analysis tools, and modeling pipeline should interact so these studies can eventually be run automatically for both platforms and projects.

OUTCOMES

By your 90‑day mark, we’ll look to you to have driven tangible, system‑level progress. Specifically, you will:

1. Establish a baseline structural “kit of parts”

   • Document standard wall, floor, and roof assemblies (including spans, sheathing patterns, shear wall strategy, tie‑downs, and typical connections) for a selected product line (e.g., Triple Decker or comparable module set).

   • Identify where current details are over‑designed, under‑specified, or misaligned with factory reality, and propose targeted updates.

2. Close at least two recurring structural pain loops between design and factory

   • Partner with factory, modeling, and design teams to select two recurring issues with structural implications (for example: cracking during lifts, truss dimension mismatches, missing shear/nailing schedules, or wall fit problems).

   • For each, deliver:

     • A concise root‑cause write‑up, including structural and process contributors.

     • A concrete change to details, standards, or tolerances that is implemented in our drawings, models, or Sidekick documentation.

3. Define a repeatable collaboration model with our structural EOR

   • For at least one active project, lead the structural engagement with the EOR from internal concept through stamped package.

   • Produce a lightweight “playbook” for how we want to work with stamping engineers going forward (what we own, what they own, how we avoid unnecessary over‑design, and how we keep decisions synchronized with our models).

4. Embed structural logic in our digital toolchain

   • Work with modeling and software partners to get at least one important structural rule (for example: standard nailing schedule behavior, span checks, or connection rules) expressed in a way that can be encoded in our parametric modeling workflows.

   • Document the next 3–5 candidate rules that should follow, with a clear sense of impact and implementation difficulty.

5. Create a shared, practical definition of “structurally done”

   • Align with architecture, modeling, and factory engineering on what “structurally done” means at each stage (concept, permit, issued‑for‑modeling, issued‑for‑factory, issued‑for‑field).

   • Propose a simple checklist or gate for at least one stage that we begin piloting on live work.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience

  • 7+ years of structural engineering experience on building projects, ideally including multifamily or high‑repeatability housing types.

  • Experience with modular, offsite, panelized, or other prefabricated systems is a strong plus.

  • Demonstrated track record of coordinating with architects, MEP engineers, fabricators, and field teams.

• Technical depth

  • Strong grasp of structural behavior in wood/light‑gauge and mixed‑material systems (gravity, lateral, connections, deflection, movement, and creep).
    Solid understanding of current building codes and standards, including IBC, ASCE 7, and relevant material‑specific codes.

  • Familiarity with Massachusetts and/or California building codes, and comfort working with third‑party modular inspection agencies and local AHJs.

  • Proficiency with structural analysis and documentation tools; comfortable working from and back into Revit, and able to collaborate effectively with parametric CAD environments (Onshape, SolidWorks, Tekla, etc.).

  • Experience with or strong interest in API‑driven structural tools (for example SkyCiv, Dlubal RFEM 6, or similar), or a track record of using scripting/automation around more traditional tools (e.g., RISA, ETABS, SAP) to run repeatable studies and optimizations.

• Systems mindset

  • Excited to turn one‑off project details into reusable patterns and rules.

  • Able to weigh cost, manufacturability, throughput, and embodied carbon alongside pure structural performance.

• Collaboration and communication

  • Clear communicator who can explain structural trade‑offs to architects, modelers, factory leaders, and executives.

  • Comfortable engaging directly with trades and factory operators to understand what actually happens on the floor and in the field.

• Bias to action

  • Inclined to test ideas quickly on real problems, including prototypes, then codify what works.

  • Comfortable operating in ambiguity and helping define processes, not just following them.

If you’re excited by the idea of owning the structural backbone of a new kind of housing platform, and you want to see your work move from model to robot to home in weeks, not years, we’d love to talk.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Reframe Systems is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.