Structural Engineer
Rendezvous Robotics
<p><em>Golden, CO | On-Site | Full-Time</em></p> <h3><strong>About Rendezvous Robotics</strong></h3> <p>Today, everything we send to space is constrained by what fits inside a rocket fairing. That’s a fundamental bottleneck to building more capable spacecraft. Rendezvous Robotics is solving this problem with electromagnetic self-assembling tiles that enable spacecraft that are bigger and more powerful than anything that can be folded to fit into a rocket. We’re a small team based in Golden, Colorado, executing on a clear path from flight demonstration to our first operational systems. Our work spans hardware, software, and systems engineering, and we’re always looking for people who want to build things that matter.</p> <h3><strong>The Role</strong></h3> <p>We are looking for a Mid to Senior Level Structural Engineer to own flight hardware from cradle to grave: design, analysis, and test, and to lead structural analysis for the program. You will take complex, space-grade structures and mechanisms from requirements and detailed CAD through analysis, qualification, and on-orbit operation, and you will set the structural methods, loads, and test requirements the rest of the team works to. This is an individual-contributor role with technical leadership: you’ll be hands-on with your own hardware while establishing standards and processes for how we model, test, and disposition structures across the program. You’ll partner closely with systems, electrical, software, manufacturing, and test, and mentor the engineers growing into the discipline. This is a full-time, on-site role in Golden, Colorado.</p> <h3><strong>What You’ll Do</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Own space-grade structures, mechanisms, and electromechanical assemblies from concept through detailed design, qualification, production, and on-orbit operation, including requirements definition, detailed CAD, tolerance stack-ups, and design reviews.</li> <li>Lead structural analysis for the program: modal, quasi-static, random vibration, sine, shock, buckling, bolted-joint, and thermo-elastic analysis of primary and secondary structures and integrated assemblies.</li> <li>Develop and post-process finite element models to predict design responses and demonstrate positive margins of safety.</li> <li>Set the structural load, environment, and test requirements for components, subsystems, and full spacecraft.</li> <li>Lead the vibration and structural test campaigns for hardware you have designed and analyzed, including instrumentation choices such as accelerometers and strain gauges, and correlate models to test data to sharpen your predictions.</li> <li>Work with manufacturing and supplier partners on materials, joints, and designs that are both producible and testable; produce and check detailed drawings and GD&amp;T.</li> <li>Build out our structural design and analysis best practices and mentor junior engineers.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Required Qualifications</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent.</li> <li>5+ years of spacecraft, launch-vehicle, or comparable flight-hardware design and structural analysis experience.</li> <li>Demonstrated cradle-to-grave ownership of flight hardware—carrying mechanisms or structural assemblies from concept through design, analysis, qualification, and on-orbit operation.</li> <li>Strong command of one or more industry-standard structural FEA packages (Nastran/Femap, ANSYS, Abaqus, etc.), with demonstrated modal, quasi-static, random vibration, buckling, and bolted-joint analysis experience.</li> <li>Working knowledge of launch and on-orbit load environments, factors of safety, and margi