[Nyx Earth] Senior Propulsion Structural Engineer

[Nyx Earth] Senior Propulsion Structural Engineer at The Exploration Company. About the role

Join a team dedicated to designing, building, and operating Nyx, a modular, reusable orbital vehicle. This role focuses on the mechanical structure of the propulsion system, ensuring its integrity and performance. You will contribute to the development of a spacecraft capable of carrying cargo and, eventually, humans. Key facts

Location: Bordeaux

Engagement: Full-time

Compensation: €62K - €88K

Team: Engineering What you'll do

- Analyze static and dynamic load inputs, material properties, and test data to establish structural analysis cases.

- Conduct stress and fatigue analyses, providing detailed validation and justification for propulsion system structural margins, adhering to NASA certification standards.

- Evaluate the integration of commercial off-the-shelf equipment into the propulsion system, considering qualified loads.

- Manage the structural substantiation of propulsion components from initial concept through qualification, maintaining traceability.

- Collaborate with design engineers to validate mechanical sizing and support design iterations.

- Create simple mechanical components and propose structural solutions based on analysis and practical experience.

- Assist with trade studies concerning structural architecture, materials, and joint designs for propulsion structures.

- Plan and support hardware test campaigns, including coupon and sub-assembly testing, to gather data for analysis and validation.

- Define test objectives and success criteria, coordinating with test engineering, and correlate test outcomes with analytical models.

- Identify suitable test platforms and instrumentation requirements for structural verification.

- Investigate anomalies, performing root cause analyses for structural damage or unexpected behavior during tests or flights.

- Justify non-conformities against structural requirements and support disposition decisions with engineering rationale.

- Incorporate lessons learned from anomalies into design standards and analysis practices. Requirements

- 5+ years of direct experience in structural analysis for launch vehicles, spacecraft, or space capsules, with a preference for liquid propulsion structures.

- Strong proficiency in FEA tools like NASTRAN, combined with hand-calculation abilities for static and dynamic load cases (vibration, shock, fatigue).

- Familiarity with structural certification standards and processes (e.g., NASA-STD-5001, ECSS) and experience in preparing formal analysis reports.

- Working knowledge of CAD environments such as CATIA or NX, sufficient for reviewing, sketching, and proposing mechanical design alterations.

- Experience supporting or managing test campaigns, from defining tests to correlating results with predictions.

- Proven involvement in anomaly investigations or non-conformance dispositions within a hardware delivery setting. Skills & tools

- NASTRAN

- CATIA

- NX

- FEA tools

- Hand calculations

- Problem-solving

- Collaboration

- Organizational skills

- Autonomy

- Communication Practical notes

Relocation assistance and visa sponsorship are available. Travel to the Munich office may be required occasionally. Employment offers are contingent on a successful background check conducted by Zinc Work Limited. About the company The Exploration Company is a European aerospace firm developing reusable spacecraft. Chief Executive Officer Hélène Huby founded the business in July 2021 alongside space engineers Artur Koop, Sebastien Reichstadt, Pierre Vinet, and Jon Reijneveld. Before establishing the company, the founding team worked together on major European space programs at Airbus and ArianeGroup. Their previous projects included key contributions to the Automated Transfer Vehicle and the Orion European Service Module. The company embraces a pan-European identity and maintains a global presence. Its primary headquarters are located in Munich, Bordeaux, and Oberpfaffenhofen. Additional company offices are located in Italy, France, Houston in the United States, and the MENA region. The core mission of The Exploration Company centers on developing Nyx. Nyx is a family of modular, reusable spacecraft designed to execute missions in Low Earth Orbit, lunar orbit, and on the Moon. The modular architecture allows these vehicles to fulfill several distinct roles. They are built for cargo transport, atmospheric re-entry operations, and future human spaceflight. By creating reusable spacecraft, the company aims to provide flexible orbital logistics and support long-term space exploration. Joining the workforce gives team members the chance to engineer vehicles that expand space transportation options for orbital and lunar missions.