eVTOL Structural Design Engineer

About the role

You will join an eVTOL aircraft company to design the primary structure that carries every load the vehicle will ever see. This team turns outer mold lines into a composite airframe: fuselage, wing, pylons, and the motor mounts that react distributed propulsion thrust. Your designs balance the brutal arithmetic of electric flight, where every kilogram of structure is a kilogram taken from batteries or payload, and where stiffness drives flutter margins as well as weight. You will partner with manufacturing engineers from the first sketch, because the lightest structure in CAD is worthless if the factory cannot build it repeatedly and affordably.

What you will achieve

• Design primary composite structure from concept through detailed drawings, releasing parts that pass structural analysis on the first review cycle.
• Cut airframe weight by 8 percent or more through topology optimization, ply schedule refinement, and joint redesign, without eroding margins or stiffness targets.
• Lead the structural substantiation of a major assembly, correlating finite element models with static test results to within agreed tolerances.
• Resolve manufacturing-driven redesigns quickly, keeping composite layup practical and repeatable while protecting structural intent.
• Deliver the damage tolerance and fatigue analysis package the certification team needs for the structures compliance findings, with test evidence to back it. Element and subcomponent tests validate your analysis methods early, so full-scale test results confirm rather than surprise.

What you will bring

Must-haves

• 2 to 5 years designing aircraft primary structure, preferably in composites, with released drawings behind you.
• Strong finite element analysis skills with tools such as Nastran and HyperMesh, including model correlation to physical test.
• Ability to do classical hand calculations for joints, buckling, and bearing strength as a sanity check on every FEA result.
• Experience with composite design details: ply drop-offs, bonded and bolted joints, co-cured structure, and sandwich panels.
• Proficiency in a 3D CAD system such as CATIA or Siemens NX, with clean drawing and GD&T practice.
• Understanding of damage tolerance philosophy and how it shapes inspection programs and maintenance manuals.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with composite manufacturing processes such as resin transfer molding or automated fiber placement.
• Background in rotorcraft or light aircraft structural certification.
• Familiarity with lightning strike protection design for composite airframes.
• Knowledge of aeroelastic considerations such as flutter and divergence in design.