Principal Dynamics Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: Los Angeles, California, United States. Access to ITAR-controlled information requires being a U.S. person or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

Base salary: $190,000–$235,000 per year, plus equity.

Company

Develops high-power satellite platforms for commercial and U.S. government missions from low Earth orbit to deep space.

What you will do

• Lead the definition and execution of dynamic testing at component, subsystem, vehicle, and stack levels.
• Derive spacecraft loads, environments, vibration, shock, jitter, and response-limit criteria for payload and hardware teams.
• Develop time- and frequency-domain physics models using finite element analysis and Python-based simulation tools.
• Own coupled loads analysis, including bus-and-payload superelement and Craig-Bampton model development.
• Lead jitter, pointing performance, vibroacoustic, modal test, and ground-to-flight correlation analyses.
• Set technical direction, lead code reviews, document engineering results, and mentor dynamics engineers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, or mathematics.
• 8+ years of experience in dynamics from industry or academia.
• U.S. person status or eligibility for a federally issued export control license is required for access to ITAR-controlled information.
• Ability to solve complex problems independently and communicate analysis and test insights clearly.

Nice to have

• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, or mathematics.
• Experience with vibration, acoustics, shock, modal testing, measurements, FEMAP, or Nastran.
• Strong Python development, digital signal processing, statistics, and structural mechanics experience.
• Experience with coupled loads analysis, Craig-Bampton model reduction, jitter and pointing analysis, GNC-coupled dynamics, multibody dynamics, or vibroacoustics.
• Experience maintaining shared analysis tooling with version control and continuous integration.

Culture & Benefits

• Fast-paced, high-growth Series D environment focused on mass-producing advanced spacecraft.
• Paid time off, medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Life insurance and paid parental leave.
• Base salary plus company equity.
• Non-traditional career paths and reasonable accommodations are supported.