Composites Design Engineer

- Design and develop composite structures for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), supporting lightweight, high-performance airframe solutions from concept through flight test.

- Own composite components across the full development cycle - including laminate design, structural analysis, fabrication support, and validation testing.

- Perform structural analysis using hand calculations and FEA to evaluate stiffness, strength, stability, and failure modes.

- Collaborate with manufacturing and test teams to translate designs into buildable hardware and validate performance through testing.

- Participate in hands-on fabrication and integration of prototype composite hardware.

- Support structural test planning and execution, helping correlate analytical predictions with physical test results.

- Develop laminate architectures, joints, and structural concepts that are optimized not only for performance, but also for repeatability and scalability in higher-volume production.

- 7+ years of experience designing and/or building composite structures.

- Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related field.

- Experience performing FEA using tools such as ANSYS or similar simulation software.

- Comfortable working across design, analysis, and test of structural hardware.

- Experience with laminate design and composite structural analysis (CLT and/or FEA).

- Hands-on experience with composite manufacturing processes such as prepreg layup, vacuum bagging, infusion, or bonded assemblies.

- Experience with aerospace or UAV composite structures (wings, fuselages, control surfaces, etc.).

- Experience with autoclave and out of autoclave prepreg thermoplastic and thermoset composites, RTM, filament winding, chopped fiber press molding, automated processing such as automated fiber placement (AFP) and or automated tape laying (ATL).

- Understanding of manufacturing-driven design tradeoffs (ply drops, minimum radii, bridging, fiber steering constraints).

- History of defining inspection and NDI methods (ultrasound, CT, thermography).

- Work using Fibersim for laminate definition and manufacturing planning.

- Familiarity with composite failure modes such as delamination, buckling, and fatigue.

- Time spent supporting structural testing and analysis correlation.

- Comfort working in a lab or shop environment including trimming, bonding, and basic composite repair.