Senior Mechanism Simulation Engineer

A New Paradigm For Space Operations. Who We Are: Space Kinetic is a dual use space technology startup building a completely new architecture for space operations – one that brings the advantages of proliferated drone technology (low-cost, operationally flexible, attainable, distributed) to space missions while reducing the ecosystem's reliance on consumable fuel. In a world where many companies are focused on incrementally improving the status quo, we are focused on creating something entirely different – an architecture underpinned by new first principles to meet the opportunities and challenges of the third space age head-on. Our goal is to move away from one-to-one space architectures – where each satellite in a constellation has one (or a small # of) primary payloads attached to the bus -- and unlock a ‘one-to-many’ system, where each satellite has a large number of payloads which can be deployed from their host spacecraft at high velocities without firing a thruster. This is not a role for someone looking for a traditional 40-hour work week. Space Kinetic is building ambitious, first-of-its-kind technology, and that requires urgency, ownership, and a high level of commitment to changing the foundational assumptions for everything we do in space. What You’ll Do: The Senior Mechanism Simulation Engineer will be an integral member of the Mechanical Engineering team. The primary responsibilities include the design analysis and test of prototype and flight hardware from the proprietary innovative electromechanical payload of Space Kinetic's core technology to achieve our mission, the flight demonstration unit, within the next 2 years, and the full production payload facility. This role is pivotal and requires high fidelity structural and kinematics analyses experience aligned with the proper kinematics testing (functional and qualification), test data processing to inform all necessary design changes that will drive the development of our future space mission operations success. Responsibilities: Partner with the manufacturing/engineering teams to develop the innovative Whirlwind Payload design and analyze the corresponding flight hardware. Support the design team with detailed mechanisms simulations of the prototype and flight hardware. Assist with the development phases, conceiving and verifying the mechanism design, providing feedback to the CAD designs for manufacturing, and working closely with vendors to source components. Design the validation and verification (V&V) test that will drive the prototype design improvements and meet space operations mission requirements. Scaling and optimizing the mechanism designs to enhance the flight system performance. Hardware validation and verification as well as flight hardware qualification tests. What It Takes: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Structural Engineering. 10+ years of experience in structural analysis for spacecraft, launch vehicles, or equivalent aerospace hardware. Experience in space vehicle structural load requirements across all mission phases: ground handling, transportation, launch/ascent, separation events, on-orbit operations, and disposal, is highly desirable. Ability to understand mission concepts, trajectory, motion kinematics and flight dynamics, derive structural design limit loads and requirements a plus. Understanding of design limit loads, calculate mechanical margins of safety utilizing applicable factors of safety per standards (NASA, DoD, ECSS, etc.). Experience with CAD and CAE packages (NASTRAN, FEMAP, ANSYS, SolidWorks, NX, Simcenter 3D, Vibroacoustic, Thermal Desktop, NX Motion, Amesim etc.) is necessary. Ability to develop mathematical models and perform simulations to calculate structural margins, kinematics simulations, dynamics environments. Experience in designing and executing system and subsystem dynamics and kinematics testing of flight hardware, understanding test data acquisition and adept at implementing desi