Senior Transient Dynamic FEA Engineer (LS-Dyna)
Since its inception in 1987, CFD Research has delivered innovative technology solutions within the Aerospace & Defense, Biomedical & Life Sciences, Intelligence & Sensing, and Energy & Materials industries. CFD Research has earned multiple national awards for successful application and commercialization of innovative component/system technology prototypes, multi-physics simulation software, multi-disciplinary analyses, and expert support services. Based in Huntsville, Alabama, CFD Research also has office and laboratory facilities in Dayton, Ohio; prototyping test and evaluation facilities in Hollywood, Alabama; and office facilities in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. CFD Research is an ISO9001:AS9100D registered company, appraised at CMMI Level II for Services, and is a 100% ESOP (employee-owned company).
About the role
The candidate will evaluate high-speed dynamic damage events in the time domain, such as drops and bird strikes, to aid in the design, verification, and manufacture of aerospace structures. Experience with turbomachinery and rotordynamics is a plus. The position is located at CFD Research’s Huntsville Headquarters, where the candidate will work closely with existing structural, fluid, and thermal analysis teams to provide rapid design recommendations and assessments.
The candidate is expected to interface regularly with Prototype, Test, and Evaluation Division engineers located at the company’s Hollywood, AL Engineering Test Center, necessitating trips to Hollywood to support in-person meetings 3 times a month. The potential exists for the aspiring candidate to help grow and eventually lead the burgeoning high-fidelity structural analysis team.
Responsibilities
- Develop and validate time-domain FEA models to analyze transient events such as drops, crashes, FOD strikes, and other short-duration impacts.
- Produce engineering reports and documentation in support of requirement verification and design reviews.
- Support root-cause investigations of field impact issues and propose corrective actions.
- Advise or direct material testing procedures as necessary, with knowledge of material behaviors including rate sensitivities.
- Understand and apply thermal-structural coupling in analyses.
- Correlate model results with test data.
Requirements
- U.S. Citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a secret security clearance.
- Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering.
- 6+ years of hands-on experience with FEA, and 2+ years of experience using LS-Dyna.
- Strong understanding of progressive damage modeling in FEA.
- Solid understanding of structural dynamics.
- Familiarity with running on a remote HPC cluster and submitting jobs to a bash scheduler.
Qualifications
- An active secret security clearance.
- Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering.
- Proficiency with Abaqus Explicit.
- Experience with rotordynamics and associated analysis methods.
- Background in applied metallurgy.
- Familiarity with high-performance computing (HPC) and large-scale models.
- Experience with Python for post-processing of tabular data or the creation of automation macros.
Benefits
- Competitive salaries and employer-matching 401(k).
- Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
- Comprehensive insurance package, including medical, vision, and dental.
- Company-paid leave, compensation time, parental leave, and short/long-term disability.
- Accidental death and dismemberment, and life insurance.
- Performance appraisals twice a year with annual pay increases based on corporate goals, personal development, and performance.
- Group and individual bonuses for exceptional performance.