Senior Spacecraft Structures Engineer

Power the future of Space at Star Catcher

Star Catcher is building the first energy grid in space to power the orbital economy.

Today’s spacecraft must generate all of their own power, which caps what they can do and how long they can operate. But what if they could “plug” into a grid, the way buildings do on Earth? Instead of cables and outlets, Star Catcher is building the technology to wirelessly beam energy to spacecraft’s existing solar panels when and where they need it.

Be an early member of a team building an entirely new energy infrastructure at scale to power the next frontier.

Star Catcher Industries, Inc., located in Jacksonville, Florida
, has an opportunity for a Senior Spacecraft Structures Engineer to support the development of space-to-space power beaming spacecraft and the Star Catcher Network, its orbital power grid. As a subject matter expert (SME), the ideal candidate will bring extensive experience with all phases of the spacecraft structures development process, including structural architecture, load definition, finite element analysis, launch vehicle interfaces, vibration testing, and qualification.

• Own the structural architecture of the spacecraft, including the primary structure, load paths, and the stowed and deployed configurations of deployable structures.
• Establish program structural design and verification criteria, such as factors of safety, load case definition, and margin of safety reporting per NASA-STD-5001, and approve margins for flight.
• Direct finite element modeling and analysis across the structures team, and review models, load cases, and margin reports before release.
• Own structural-thermal-optical performance of precision optical assemblies under high thermal flux, and negotiate line-of-sight and wavefront error allocations with the optical and thermal teams.
• Lead vibration test campaigns, from instrumentation plan and success criteria through anomaly disposition and model correlation closure.
• Define structural interfaces to the launch vehicle and separation system, and own the coupled loads analysis cycle with the launch provider through closure.
• Support the systems engineering team in writing detailed requirements for structures functionality and the methods for verification.
• Serve as the technical focal point for structures across mechanical design, opto-mechanical, thermal, electrical, and manufacturing.
• Create technical documentation for proposals, design reviews, and test reports which demonstrate rigor and expertise for the goal of executing on program deliverables and winning of new programs.
• Mentor structures engineers and analysts, and establish standards for structural design, analysis processes, documentation, and review practices for the discipline.

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, structural, or aerospace engineering, or a related field, and a minimum of ten years of experience in spacecraft structural design and analysis.
• Demonstrated leadership of space systems development, including ownership of a structure from concept through qualification and flight.
• Experience performing and reviewing structural analysis in Ansys Mechanical or equivalent across static, modal, random vibration, and shock load cases.
• Working knowledge of aerospace structural criteria, including margin of safety reporting, bolted joint analysis, factors of safety per NASA-STD-5001, and fracture control per NASA-STD-5019 or equivalent.
• Experience owning vibration test campaigns, including instrumentation plans, anomaly disposition, and model correlation to test data.
• Experience serving as the structures interface to a launch vehicle provider, including coupled loads analysis cycles and interface requirements documents.
• Creative…