Senior Structural Dynamics Engineer

About the Company

Proteus Space is revolutionizing satellite design and production to help America win the new space race. By rapidly generating custom, mission and payload optimized satellite designs, we drastically reduce costs, slash timelines, and eliminate non-recurring engineering expenses. We explore vast design spaces and provide high-performance solutions in days, not months, offering quantifiable certainty in forecasting cost, schedule, and reliability.

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Structural Dynamics Engineer to lead the prediction, management, and verification of Line-of-Sight (LoS) stability for our next-generation satellite platforms. This is a role for a technical specialist who understands that "Jitter" is not just a structural problem: it is a system-level challenge involving Control-Structure Interaction (CSI), micro-vibration propagation, and optical payload stability.

Responsibilities

• Micro-Vibration Analysis: Lead the frequency-domain and time-domain analysis of spacecraft jitter, predicting Line-of-Sight (LoS) errors caused by internal disturbances (RWAs, cryos) and thermally induced structural transients (thermal snap/stick-slip).
• GNC-Flex Model Generation: Generate and validate reduced-order models (Craig-Bampton superelements) for the GNC team, ensuring accurate capture of high-frequency flexible modes and residual stiffness for control loop stability.
• Control-Structure Interaction (CSI): Analyze the stability of the spacecraft control system in the presence of flexible structural modes, advising on filter designs and notch placements to prevent resonance during slews.
• Methodology Development: Architect automated workflows for Sine Vibration predictions and Coupled Loads Analysis (CLA), enabling the rapid assessment of design iterations without manual intervention.
• Test Correlation: Design and support modal survey testing, employing correlation techniques to statistically validate the stiffness and mass distribution of the analytical model against physical hardware.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in structural dynamics, loads analysis, and vibroacoustics for spaceflight systems.
• Deep expertise in Simcenter Nastran OR demonstrated mastery of Nastran SOL 111/112 with the ability to transition quickly to the Simcenter environment.
• Mathematical Rigor: Deep understanding of signal processing (FFTs, PSDs, Hanning windows) and model reduction physics (modal effective mass, residual vectors).
• Computational Data Handling: Demonstrated ability to use Python, MATLAB, or DMAP to efficiently process large engineering datasets (e.g., massive .op2 files) and manage complex Coupled Loads Analysis (CLA) inputs.

Preferred Skills

• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Engineering with a focus on Computational Dynamics or Controls.
• Expertise in defining predictive damping schedules (modal damping vs. material damping) and correlating Q-factors from physical tap tests or modal surveys.
• Deep Expertise in Control-Structure Interaction (CSI): Experience stabilizing high-bandwidth control loops on flexible platforms, including the use of notch filters and input shaping to prevent ring-up.
• Custom Solver Logic: Experience coding custom simulation kernels or fixing solver logic (C/C++) to handle novel physics problems (e.g., fluid-structure interaction/slosh or complex damping models).
• Previous ownership of a critical subsystem test campaign (e.g., Micro-Vibration characterization or Modal Survey).

Benefits

Proteus Space offers comprehensive benefits including paid medical healthcare for employees, flexible vacation policy, sick days, 401k, pregnancy leave, family leave, holiday pay, military service leave, dental care, vision care and other benefits.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Proteus is committed to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of an applicant's age, disability, sex, race, religion, gender, national origin, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. The Company will provide reasonable accommodations to an applicant with a disability or religious belief in or to enable the applicant to apply for the position.