Sr. Structural Engineer

Application close date:

Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!  

This role supports the development and operations of New Glenn, a single-configuration, heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle capable of routinely carrying people and payloads to low-Earth orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, cislunar, and beyond. Its first stage is fully reusable, and the vehicle was designed from the beginning to be human-capable.

This role is a part of the Lunar Customer Programs team for the New Glenn Advanced Customer Programs.  As part of the New Glenn business unit, this team develops unique solutions for New Glenn’s government, Lunar, Orbital Reef, and crewed spacecraft customers among others. 

As part of a small, hardworking team of experts, you will be responsible for the development of unique structural design solutions supporting New Glenn’s ambitious customer base. This position will directly further Blue Origin's mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth, building sustainable infrastructure for our transport of crew and cargo from Earth to the lunar surface and LEO destinations. In this role, you will own hardware through the full life cycle from design, analysis, manufacturing, and test.

We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, inventiveness, and dedication to safety and quality to build the road to space. Passion for our mission and vision is required!

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Design, analysis, development, and testing of primary and secondary structures, including composites and metallic piece parts, as well as integrated structural assemblies
• Execute research, configuration development, and trade studies to meet performance, schedule, and cost targets
• Create CAD models, detail part drawings, assemblies, installations, and interface control documents
• Apply practical approaches to hardware fabrication and cost impacts
• Create test plans, specifications, and other documentation for the development and production of flight hardware
• Subsystem test planning, execution, data reduction and analysis, and test data review
• Review technical work of team members (drawings, analyses, test plans) to identify design improvements and ensure quality standards before release
• Balance customer solutions with documented, repeatable processes
• Proactively engage with manufacturing and have regular floor presence during critical build phases
• Identify design or manufacturing issues immediately and lead root cause analyses for moderate-scope NCs
• Maintain visual project status indicators (activity schedule, budget and technical status) for team transparency
• Work with multi-functional teams that are responsible for selecting materials, manufacturing processes, and suppliers to produce world-class aerospace hardware
• Respond to customer-driven schedules
• Manage multiple concurrent projects with attention to team capacity and sustainable pace
• Develop junior engineers into future technical leads through progressive delegation

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum of a B.S. degree in Mechanical or Aerospace engineering or equivalent technical field
• 5+ years related experience in structural design and analysis of automotive, aircraft, spacecraft, or launch vehicle structures
• Strong mechanical design and integration skills using 3D CAD software (Creo, CATIA V5, SolidWorks, AutoDesk or other industry standard software).
• Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerance analysis (ASME Y14.5) proficiency
• Structural design of metallic components and assemblies
• Vehicle load path distribution, and first order strength assessment and sizing
• Material selection, compatibility and manufacturing techniques
• Demonstrated ability to conduct structural analysis using hand-calculation and finite element techniques, using any industry standard software: Ansys, Nastran, Optistruct, LS Dyna, Hypermesh, Hypersizer
• Strong presentation, documentation and communications skills, with the ability to present the solution and build consensus among customers and New Glenn stakeholders
• Passion for building flight hardware and creativity for inventing new technology.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admit