Senior Mechanical Analysis Engineer, Structures (Aerospace)

Location: Huntington Beach, California, United States. The role requires availability for extended hours and weekends when needed.

Salary: $140,000–$180,000 USD per year, plus performance incentives, equity, and benefits.

Company

Mach Industries is a rapidly growing defense technology startup developing autonomous defense platforms and decentralized systems for the United States and its allies.

What you will do

• Own structural sizing and optimization from preliminary architecture through detailed design for load-bearing structures, skins, spars, ribs, equipment mounts, and structural interfaces.
• Use hand calculations and finite element analysis to develop load paths, material selections, joint configurations, and structural designs for metallic and composite airframes.
• Build and maintain structural finite element models, prepare margins of safety, and perform strength, stiffness, stability, modal, dynamic, fatigue, and crack propagation analyses.
• Collaborate with design, loads, dynamics, flight sciences, manufacturing, and test teams to develop practical, buildable aerospace structures.
• Support structural testing, prototype builds, design reviews, FEM correlation, rapid design iterations, and critical development milestones.
• Prepare analysis reports, sizing documentation, engineering drawings, and technical data packages, and act as an analysis signoff reviewer for hardware releases.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in aerospace structural analysis and optimization for strength and stiffness, including metallics, composites, and bolted or bonded joints.
• Strong understanding of structural mechanics, load paths, free-body diagrams, strength, stiffness, stability, and structural sizing.
• Proficiency with CAD and structural analysis tools such as NX, FEMAP, Nastran, ANSYS, Abaqus, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ownership of structural hardware from concept through analysis, detailed design, manufacturing, and testing.
• Must be authorized to work in the United States and meet ITAR eligibility requirements, including U.S. citizenship or nationality, lawful permanent residence, refugee or asylee status, or the ability to obtain required authorizations.

Nice to have

• Experience with vehicle-level global finite element models, aircraft or UAV structures, and structural load development.
• Experience with linear, nonlinear, modal, dynamic, sine, random, acoustic, fatigue, crack propagation, buckling, and FEM correlation analyses.
• Experience supporting flight-test hardware, rapid prototyping, and hands-on aerospace manufacturing or assembly.

Culture & Benefits

• Startup agility and a focus on rapid hardware development and innovation in defense technology.
• Healthcare, dental, and vision coverage, retirement savings, and paid time off.
• Performance-based incentives and equity participation.
• Funding for continuing education, training, and professional development.
• Participation in E-Verify and employment subject to U.S. export-control authorization requirements.