Mechanical Engineering - Loads and Dynamics Analysis

About Zipline

Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers.   The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it. Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.   Join Zipline and help us to make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people.

About You and The Role

You enjoy solving complex structural problems using first principles analysis coupled with system level finite element models (FEM). You will be responsible for developing aircraft and ground system loads from conceptual architecture phase through qualification testing. In this role you will own all aspects of flight & ground loads development including setting and upholding analysis requirements, processes, and standards. This role works closely with structures and subsystem engineers to define stiffness and load requirements needed to meet system goals as well as jumping in to design and analyze hardware when needed. You will work closely with Reliability and Test Engineering to identify, investigate, and root cause failures discovered in testing and in the field. 

How to know if it's you: You’ve built your own prototypes to get quick answers, pencil and paper calculations are always your first step, you prefer simple and fast over detailed and large, you are on the floor during system testing, you have never presented a FEM plot without adjusting the legend scale. On any given day you could be building test articles in our composites/ prototype labs, developing simple models to inform design trade studies, performing structural tests to validate analysis, working across disciplines to tackle complex system level challenges, root causing a test or field failure, or in the field supporting flight tests.

Zipline was founded by engineers dedicated to making the world a better place. We are building a new global industry and are looking for a talented engineer who takes a hands-on approach and will use analysis to drive design. The ideal candidate will be someone who excels in a fast paced, dynamic environment and is excited to own and drive simple, elegant solutions to complex problems that will help save lives every day.

What You'll Do

• Loads and Dynamics Analysis
  • Perform analysis to develop loads to size flight and ground subsystems, structures, assemblies, and systems
  • Develop quasi-static, balanced load cases that will be applied to air-vehicle Global FEMs
  • Predict response to transient dynamic events such as impact, launch, recovery, parachute deployment, bird strike, and motor imbalance
  • Create multi-body simulations to quantify dynamic loads resulting from multi-body interactions
  • Work with Aero & GNC teams to compute aeroelastic loads for gust, maneuver, and failure load cases
  • Define program loads requirements and methodologies for developing flight, transient dynamic, and multibody loads, including developing and maintaining a loads database that envelopes all air vehicle load cases
  • Build and document standardized in-house tools and processes to develop flight, transient dynamic, and multibody air vehicle loads

• Vehicle Structural Analysis
  • Evaluate and optimize systems (flight and ground) for structural loads, vibration modes, and deflections
  • Perform analysis and sizing of airframe primary and secondary structure including static, dynamic, and stability analysis for metallic and non-metallic structures
  • Classical stress analysis (Roark/Bruhn) to do initial sizing
  • Dynamic analysis, including structural modes, random vibration, and forced harmonic vibration
  • Drive design trades with data from lightweight FEMs (Beams/Shells) that can be rapidly updated (daily) to match evolving configurations

• Experimental Correlation of Flight and Test Data
  • Identify and define when test correlation is required to validate simulation models, including static, dynamic, a