Senior Staff Engineer, Structures and Vibration (6237)
Dallas · USD 170,000-260,000 / year · 12+ years experience · Onsite · Posted Oct 10, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 12+ years experience
- Workplace
- Onsite
- Location
- Dallas
- Salary
- USD 170,000-260,000 / year
About the role
- Shield AI is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer, Structures and Vibration to own V-BAT system loads and define structural requirements for subsystems, components, and suppliers.
- The role involves leading composite structural analysis, vibration and shock environment assessments, and program-wide weight optimization reviews.
- Candidates will serve as the bolted joint expert, mentor engineers in FEA and structural fundamentals, and present findings to engineering leadership and customers.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain company structural standards, including design criteria, factors of safety and margin policy, analysis methods, material allowables, and joint design practices.
- Own V-BAT system loads, and define structural requirements for subsystems, components, and suppliers.
- Lead and perform static, stability, modal, dynamic, and fatigue analyses of V-BAT structures using hand calculations and FEA (Simcenter).
- Lead composite structural analysis and define composite design requirements.
- Serve as the bolted joint expert for the program.
- Own vibration and shock environments. Assess existing profiles and use measured flight data to develop defensible test requirements.
- Define and improve vibration test requirements and processes, from test planning through verification, validation, and model-to-test correlation.
- Lead a program-wide weight optimization review of existing designs, and analyze new designs for weight efficiency and material selection.
- Review structural analyses, test reports, and design review content, and present findings to engineering leadership and customers.
- Mentor engineers in FEA and structural fundamentals, and build the team's structural analysis capability.
Requirements
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline.
- 12+ years of structural analysis experience on aircraft, UAS, or comparable complex system, including serving as a structural lead or technical authority.
- Experience creating structural design criteria, analysis methods, or engineering standards.
- Expert knowledge of structural mechanics and hand calculations, including strength, stability, fatigue, and structural dynamics.
- Expertise with FEA tools, preferably Siemens Simcenter (Nastran or Femap), or equivalents such as ANSYS or Abaqus.
- Significant experience analyzing composite aircraft structures and defining composite design requirements.
- Expert-level knowledge of bolted joint analysis and design.
- Hands-on experience with vibration and shock testing, including test planning, instrumentation, and data review, plus working knowledge of MIL-STD-810.
- Proven track record of mentoring engineers.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Preferred qualifications
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering.
- Experience as the lead structural engineer on a Group 2–5 UAS, rotorcraft, or VTOL aircraft.
- Experience deriving vibration environments from flight test data (PSD analysis, fatigue damage spectrum, test tailoring).
- Experience with modal testing and FEA model correlation.
- Experience leading structural weight reduction programs.
- Experience developing composite allowables (e.g., CMH-17) and knowledge of composite manufacturing processes.
- Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516, RTCA DO-160, and aircraft structural certification.
- Experience in startup or high-growth defense environments.
Benefits
- Bonus
- Benefits
- Equity
- temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment for temporary employees)
Skills
- Simcenter
- FEA
- Nastran
- Femap
- ANSYS
- Abaqus
- MIL-STD-810
- CMH-17
- MIL-HDBK-516
- RTCA DO-160
