Thermal Engineer

EVONA; Town of Florida (NY); On-site; USD 158,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully funded medical insurance

Job summary

EVONA is seeking a Thermal, Structural and Dynamics Engineer for Space Coast, Florida, onsite, full-time. US citizens only. 4+ years of experience in structural, thermal or dynamic analysis and strong FE modeling skills are required.

The role offers a package around $175,000+ and fully funded medical insurance. You will own analyses across the lifecycle, build finite element models, perform a range of structural and thermal analyses, and correlate results with test data while preparing reports

Qualifications

• 4+ years performing structural, thermal or dynamic analysis on complex engineered hardware.
• FEA capability in ANSYS, Abaqus, NASTRAN, FEMAP or equivalent.
• Solid understanding of aerospace materials, joints, fasteners, bonded interfaces and load paths.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain finite element models of structures, mechanisms, pressure systems and integrated hardware.
• Linear and nonlinear static structural analysis: strength, stiffness, stability, buckling, margins of safety and structural life.
• Modal, frequency response, random vibration, sine vibration, shock and transient dynamic analysis.
• Thermal modelling for steady state and transient conditions, covering conduction, convection and radiation.
• Coupled thermal-structural analysis including thermal distortion and thermally induced stress.
• Define and assess launch, handling, deployment, pressure, operational and environmental load cases.
• Correlate models against component, subsystem and system level test data.
• Produce analysis reports, margins summaries and certification documentation.

Skills

4+ years experience

Structural analysis

Thermal analysis

Dynamic analysis

Education

Degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering

Tools

ANSYS

Abaqus

NASTRAN

FEMAP

Job description

Thermal, Structural and Dynamics Engineer

Space Coast, Florida | Onsite, full time | US citizens only | 4+ years' experience | Circa $175,000+ plus fully funded medical

THE COMPANY

Our client is a well-capitalised space systems company on Florida's Space Coast, developing crewed habitat hardware for orbital and lunar missions.

The underlying technology has decades of development behind it and the business has moved out of R&D into production, with a purpose-built manufacturing facility already up and running. Funding is secure, including government programme funding, and the company is working towards flight hardware on a defined timeline rather than an open-ended roadmap.

The engineering group is small and unusually senior, with several people who have spent their careers on crewed habitat systems.

THE PROBLEM YOU WOULD BE SOLVING

The lunar surface is a brutal thermal environment. Surface temperatures swing by several hundred degrees between sunlight and darkness, and lunar night lasts weeks rather than hours. No sun means no solar, which means constrained power, and everything inside still has to work: the electronics, the science payloads and eventually the crew.

Solving that is the job. If you want genuinely hard thermal problems rather than incremental ones, this is one of the harder ones available.

THE ROLE

You will own thermal, structural and dynamics analysis across the lifecycle, from concept through detailed design, test and flight qualification.

• Build and maintain finite element models of structures, mechanisms, pressure systems and integrated hardware.
• Linear and nonlinear static structural analysis: strength, stiffness, stability, buckling, margins of safety and structural life.
• Modal, frequency response, random vibration, sine vibration, shock and transient dynamic analysis.
• Thermal modelling for steady state and transient conditions, covering conduction, convection and radiation.
• Coupled thermal-structural analysis including thermal distortion and thermally induced stress.
• Define and assess launch, handling, deployment, pressure, operational and environmental load cases.
• Analyse flexible and deployable structures and their interfaces with rigid hardware.
• Set analysis plans, assumptions, boundary conditions, material properties and load definitions.
• Correlate models against component, subsystem and system level test data.
• Support structural, vibration, thermal vacuum, pressure and qualification testing.
• Review drawings, CAD models, material selections and interface requirements, and recommend practical design changes.
• Produce analysis reports, margins summaries and certification documentation, and present to internal teams, customers and technical review boards.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• Degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering or a related technical subject.
• 4+ years performing structural, thermal or dynamic analysis on complex engineered hardware.
• FEA capability in ANSYS, Abaqus, NASTRAN, FEMAP or equivalent.
• Demonstrated experience across structural stress analysis, thermal analysis, modal and vibration analysis, shock or transient dynamics, and pressurised structure analysis.
• Solid understanding of aerospace materials, joints, fasteners, bonded interfaces and load paths.
• The ability to set your own analysis approach, judge the results and recognise where the model stops being trustworthy.

STRONGLY PREFERRED

• Spacecraft, launch vehicle, pressure system, habitat or deployable structure experience.
• Coupled thermal-structural analysis.
• Composites, membranes, flexible materials or nonlinear contact behaviour.
• Random vibration, acoustic loading, shock response spectra or coupled loads analysis.
• Planning or supporting vibration, thermal vacuum, pressure, structural load or qualification testing.
• Familiarity with NASA, DoD or commercial aerospace structural and environmental requirements.
• Fatigue, fracture, creep, damage tolerance or structural life assessment.
• Python or MATLAB scripting.

THE PERSON WHO FITS

The client has been direct about culture. Big-company experience is valued, but a "that's not my job" mentality does not survive here. This is a small team where people pitch in outside their remit and nobody is above a small task, leadership included.

They also want people who will challenge assumptions and surface failure modes early rather than wait to be asked.

PACKAGE AND PRACTICALITIES

• $175,000+ depending on experience.
• Fully funded medical insurance for employees, typically worth $20,000 to $30,000 a year against a comparable package elsewhere.
• Onsite in Brevard County, Florida. Full time and permanent preferred; the client would consider the right contractor.
• Must be a US citizen.

PROCESS

Initial call with the CEO, then an onsite visit, with a co-founder involved. Short and decisive, not a drawn-out process.