Principal Motor Design Engineer

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of PMSM, BLDC, AC synchronous, and other specialty motors for aerospace and defense applications from requirements definition through production release.
• Review system and customer requirements, develop motor-level requirements and interfaces, and author detailed motor specifications and verification criteria.
• Perform electromagnetic motor design and simulation using ANSYS Motor-CAD and related ANSYS tools, including magnetic circuit, winding, torque, loss, efficiency, and performance analysis.
• Perform and participate in coupled thermal, structural, stress, and dynamic analysis, considering winding and magnet temperatures, thermal paths, thermal growth, fatigue, shock, vibration, and overspeed conditions.
• Design and analyze the complete rotating assembly, including rotors, shafts, housings, bearing systems, magnet retention, interfaces, and associated mechanical components.
• Evaluate rotor dynamics, including critical speeds, rotor stiffness, bearing effects, vibration, unbalance response, and resonance risk.
• Select and analyze bearings, including load capacity, life, preload, fits, lubrication, thermal effects, stiffness, and environmental considerations.
• Develop GD&T schemes and tolerance stack-ups for air gaps, bearing fits, rotor/stator concentricity, runout, interfaces, and other critical dimensions.
• Support rotor balancing strategy, vibration analysis, balance correction, and resolution of rotating-machine vibration issues.
• Design and integrate motor mechanical interfaces with gearboxes, couplings, splines, actuators, and other drivetrain components.
• Lead trade studies across electromagnetic, thermal, structural, mechanical, manufacturing, reliability, cost, and SWaP considerations.
• Develop detailed motor specifications, CAD models, engineering drawings, tolerance requirements, BOMs, and design documentation compliant with applicable aerospace and defense standards.
• Apply DFM/DFA principles and work closely with manufacturing, suppliers, and quality personnel to ensure designs can be repeatedly manufactured, assembled, inspected, balanced, and tested.
• Oversee prototype builds, bench testing, environmental qualification, endurance testing, failure analysis, and teardown activities; correlate test results with analytical models and drive design refinements.
• Serve as the principal technical point of contact for motor and electromechanical design reviews with customers, primes, and government stakeholders.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and provide technical leadership across motor and electromechanical design activities.
• Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, systems, controls, manufacturing, and test engineering teams to ensure integrated system performance.
• Support proposal development, technical volumes, design concepts, trade studies, and ROM estimates for new business opportunities.
• Ensure designs meet requirements for performance, reliability, EMI/EMC, environmental survivability, manufacturability, and size, weight, and power (SWaP).

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering, or related field; Master's or PhD preferred.
• 10+ years of experience designing electric motors, rotating electromechanical systems, or related high-performance machinery, preferably within aerospace, defense, or another high-reliability industry.
• Demonstrated expertise in PMSM, BLDC, AC synchronous, or similar electric machine design, including magnetic circuits, winding design, motor losses, efficiency, torque production, and thermal management.
• Hands-on proficiency with ANSYS Motor-CAD and experience using ANSYS or equivalent tools for electromagnetic, thermal, structural, or mechanical analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate motor designs beyond electromagnetic performance, including thermal behavior, structural integrity, rotor dynamics, bearings, balancing, mechanical interfaces, and drivetrain considerations.
• Experience with GD&T, engineering drawings, tolerance analysis and stack-up, dimensional fits, and precision rotating assemblies.
• Experience with material selection and compatibility for high-performance electromechanical hardware.
• Experience taking designs through the full lifecycle: requirements review, specification development, concept design, detailed analysis, CAD/drawings, prototyping, test, qualification, and production transition.
• Strong understanding of motor control fundamentals and interaction between motors and drive electronics.
• Working knowledge of applicable aerospace and defense standards such as MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-704, AS9100, and related requirements.
• Strong first-principles engineering, troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, technical writing, and communication skills.
• Experience presenting technical designs and analysis to customers, internal design reviews, and government stakeholders.
• U.S. Citizenship required due to government contract requirements and access to export-controlled information.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with integrated electromechanical actuators, gearboxes, couplings, splines, and mechanical drivetrain systems.
• Experience with rotor dynamics, bearing analysis, balancing, vibration analysis, and high-speed rotating machinery.
• Familiarity with FMEA/FMECA, reliability engineering, design-for-reliability, and life prediction methods.
• Prior experience supporting DoD or NASA programs, including formal PDR/CDR activities and qualification testing.
• Active DoD security clearance.
• Experience mentoring engineers or leading small multidisciplinary technical teams.