Senior Electro-Mechanical / CAE Engineer - Aerospace Manufacturing

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary

Lead design, analysis, troubleshooting, and qualification of aircraft cargo-loading Power Drive Units (PDUs). The role combines electro-mechanical product engineering with simulation-based assessment of motors, gears, shafts, bearings, rollers, planetary drives, cams, cables, housings, and mechanical stops. The engineer will convert operating conditions—including angled/off-center ULD loading, drive torque, loaded retraction, jams, and stop impacts—into defensible analyses, correlated tests, and practical design improvements.

What you will be doing:

• Lead PDU mechanical and electro-mechanical design, analysis, integration, testing, and qualification
• Define critical load cases for normal operation, angled/off-center ULD contact, combined drive and ULD loading, lift/retraction, jams, overloads, and stop impacts
• Develop and validate assembly/component FEA models for load paths, stress, deflection, bearing reactions, mounting loads, and contact behavior
• Analyze gears, planetary gearsets, shafts, ball and needle bearings, rollers, cams, crank mechanisms, cables, housings, and mechanical stops
• Perform linear/nonlinear static, contact, modal, fatigue, and transient implicit/explicit dynamic analyses
• Prepare and simplify CATIA assemblies, define realistic connections and boundary conditions, and create detailed submodels of critical areas
• Verify models through hand calculations, equilibrium checks, mesh convergence, sensitivity studies, and review of convergence/contact/energy results
• Plan and support test correlation; lead failure investigations, design improvements, technical reporting, and cross-functional design reviews 

What you need to qualify:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mechanics, or related discipline
• 5+ years of relevant experience in mechanical design, CAE, or electro-mechanical product development
• Hands-on proficiency with Abaqus, Ansys Mechanical, or an equivalent advanced FEA solver
• Experience with linear static, nonlinear contact, modal, fatigue, and transient dynamic analysis of mechanical assemblies
• Strong fundamentals in free-body diagrams, load paths, combined stress, stiffness, contact mechanics, impact, fatigue, and failure modes
• Experience with gearboxes, shafts, bearings, cams, actuators, electric drives, rotating machinery, or similar power-transmission equipment
• Working knowledge of motor current, torque, speed, inertia, gearing, efficiency, and control-response effects on mechanical loads
• CATIA V5 and/or 3DEXPERIENCE experience, test/qualification support, and the ability to independently lead investigations and communicate technical risk
• Aerospace/defense experience with cargo-loading systems, actuators, or high-reliability electro-mechanical products preferred
• Advanced implicit/explicit nonlinear analysis; fatigue/durability or multibody-dynamics tools such as fe-safe, nCode, SIMPACK, Adams, or Ansys Motion preferred
• Knowledge of AGMA/ISO gear-rating, Hertzian contact, bearing life, test correlation, and Python/MATLAB/solver scripting preferred

What's in it for you:

• Competitive salary
• Excellent benefits package
• 401K (matching)
• Tuition reimbursement
• Fun, entrepreneurial environment

DISCLAIMER: The compensation range represents a good faith estimate of what our client may pay for the position at the time of posting. Our client may ultimately pay more or less than the posted compensation range. The salary offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal salary equity considerations, and available market information, but not based on a candidate’s gender or any other protected status.

Industry-leading manufacturer of engineered components and sub-assemblies, supplying commercial aerospace, defense and industrial markets with small-to-large function critical products.

Company Description

Industry-leading manufacturer of engineered components and sub-assemblies, supplying commercial aerospace, defense and industrial markets with small-to-large function critical products.