Lead, Structural Analysis Engineering (Stress, Fatigue & Damage Tolerance)

About the Team:  

The Integrated Performance team owns the holistic view of how Terran R comes together, ensuring that every system on the vehicle and ground is capable of achieving ambitious performance, reliability, and reusability goals. The team works across the full launch system—from trajectory design and aerodynamics to reliability analysis and post-flight data review—with technical leadership influence across the entire product lifecycle. Beyond analysis, team members engage hands-on with hardware, testing, and operations, with the authority to lead and drive meaningful programmatic change.

The Integrated Analysis group accelerates Relativity’s hardware engineering through advanced analysis, life prediction, and modern tools. The team enables robust, lightweight, and reusable structures by leading the integration of fatigue, fracture, durability, and inspection considerations early in design and throughout vehicle maturation.

About the Role: 

As a Structural Analysis Lead, you will provide technical leadership for the structural integrity, strength, durability, and life management of flight hardware across the vehicle. You will be responsible for defining and executing structural analysis strategies spanning static strength, fatigue and damage tolerance, fracture mechanics, and structural dynamics.

In this role, you will guide the development, verification, and certification of primary and secondary structures from early design through flight operations. You will work closely with design, materials, manufacturing, and test teams to ensure structurally robust designs that meet performance, reliability, and reusability requirements.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Tools

• Oversee a team of analysts while maintaining direct technical contribution
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to structural analysts and engineers
• Collaborate with design, materials, manufacturing, and test teams to ensure structurally robust and manufacturable designs
• Establish and improve structural analysis standards, best practices, and verification workflows
• Develop automation and analysis tools using scripting environments such as Python or MATLAB to improve analysis efficiency

Structural Analysis Leadership

• Lead structural analysis activities for major vehicle structures across component, subsystem, and vehicle levels
• Define structural analysis methodologies, requirements, and design margins for flight-critical hardware
• Provide technical leadership across static stress, fatigue, fracture mechanics, and durability assessments

Stress & Structural Analysis

• Perform and review static and dynamic stress analyses for metallic and additively manufactured structures
• Develop and maintain finite element models using tools such as Nastran and Abaqus with pre/post environments such as Femap
• Evaluate structural margins including yield, ultimate strength, buckling, thermal stress, and dynamic response
• Support structural sizing and optimization of primary load-bearing structures

Fatigue & Damage Tolerance

• Develop fatigue life and durability predictions using SN/EN methods and fracture mechanics approaches
• Perform crack initiation and crack growth analyses using tools such as NASGRO and AFGROW
• Establish fatigue allowables, crack growth limits, inspection intervals, and life limits for flight hardware
• Translate time-domain or spectral load environments into fatigue-relevant stress histories and cumulative damage metrics

Loads, Modeling & Environments

• Translate flight, ground, acoustic, and thermal environments into structural loads and responses
• Integrate loads and environments into structural analysis and fatigue life predictions
• Support multidisciplinary analysis for vehicle-level structural performance

Test Correlation & Structural Validation

• Lead correlation of structural and fatigue analyses with qualification and durability testing
• Support structural testing, including component, subsystem, and full-scale structural tests. Investigate anomalies and structural failures and update analysis models accordingly
• Support structural life reassessment using test and flight data

About You:  

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline
• Experience leading or mentoring a team (either formally or informally)
• 5+ years of experience in structural analysis, fatigue & damage tolerance, or structural life assessment
• Strong understanding of:
  • Static stress analysis
  • Structural mechanics
  • Fatigue and Fracture mechanics
  • Structural failure modes in aerospace hardware
• Proficiency with commercial finite element analysis tools such as:
  • Nastran
  • Abaqus
• Experience using pre/post-processing environments such as Femap
• Proficiency with fracture mechanics software such as:
  • NASGRO
  • AFGROW
• Experience converting time-domain or spectral loads into fatigue damage and life predictions
• Proficiency with engineering scripting or analysis languages such as Python or MATLAB
• Ability to independently scope, execute, review, and defend structural analyses

Nice to Haves, but Not Required:  

• Master’s or PhD in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
• Experience with launch vehicles, reusable aerospace systems, or flight-critical hardware
• Experience with additive manufacturing structural analysis and fatigue characterization
• Familiarity with Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics (EPFM)
• Experience correlating structural, fatigue, or fracture predictions with test or flight data
• Prior experience defining structural design allowables or durability standards for aerospace systems