Sr. Composite Design Engineer

Job Summary

We are seeking a Sr. Composite Design Engineer for a direct hire opportunity in Downey, CA, supporting advanced aerospace and defense manufacturing programs. This role is ideal for a senior engineering professional with deep composite structural design experience who enjoys leading complex design efforts from concept through production.

The Sr. Composite Design Engineer will play a key technical role in developing high-performance composite structures that meet demanding requirements for weight, strength, manufacturability, cost, and certification. This opportunity offers a collaborative engineering environment with cross-functional teamwork across stress, manufacturing, tooling, quality, supply chain, and program leadership. Candidates can expect meaningful technical ownership, strong peer collaboration, and the opportunity to influence design standards, production readiness, and long-term engineering best practices.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead the design and development of aerospace composite structures and components to meet performance, weight, cost, manufacturability, and certification requirements.
- Create and review 3D models, detailed drawings, laminate schedules, ply books, stack-ups, and engineering release packages using CAD tools such as CATIA, NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent.
- Collaborate with stress engineering to support structural analysis for strength, stiffness, fatigue, damage tolerance, and load case validation.
- Partner with manufacturing, tooling, quality, and supply chain teams to ensure design-for-manufacturability and successful transition from prototype to production.
- Support prototype builds, first article inspections, production ramp activities, technical issue resolution, customer reviews, design audits, and certification efforts.
- Drive continuous improvement in composite design standards, modeling practices, documentation quality, and engineering processes.

Compensation and Benefits

- Salary range: $150,000 to $190,000 per year.
- Employment type: Direct hire.
- Location: Downey, CA.
- Benefits: Not specified.

Required Qualifications and Skills

- Lead composite structure and component design efforts for aerospace and defense manufacturing programs.
- Develop laminate schedules, ply books, composite stack-ups, CAD models, drawings, and engineering release documentation.
- Support structural validation, design trade studies, manufacturability reviews, prototype builds, and production ramp activities.
- Work cross-functionally with stress, manufacturing, tooling, quality, supply chain, program management, and customer-facing technical teams.

- Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field required.
- 10+ years of experience in composite structural design, preferably within aerospace or defense manufacturing.
- Strong proficiency with CAD modeling and drafting tools such as CATIA, NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent.
- Working knowledge of FEA tools and the ability to collaborate effectively with stress engineering teams.
- Deep understanding of composite materials, laminate theory, ply orientation strategy, structural load cases, and aerospace structural requirements.
- Experience developing manufacturable composite designs using processes such as autoclave, out-of-autoclave, RTM, or related methods.
- Familiarity with aerospace regulatory requirements, certification activities, quality systems, and AS9100 environments.
- Strong engineering judgment, analytical thinking, problem-solving ability, and technical communication skills.
- Ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to engineering teams, leadership, manufacturing partners, and customers.

Preferred Qualifications

- Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field.
- Project management experience supporting engineering design, development, or production programs.
- Specific experience with aerospace composite structures in a production manufacturing environment.
- Experience supporting customer technical reviews, design audits, certification documentation, and configuration management.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disabled / Protected Veterans

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For temporary assignments lasting 13 weeks or longer, AppleOne is pleased to offer major medical, dental, vision, 401k and any statutory sick pay where required.

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We also consider for employment qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements, including, if applicable, the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. Pursuant to applicable state and municipal Fair Chance Laws and Ordinances, we will consider for employment-qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, including, if applicable, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. For Los Angeles, CA applicants: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.