K

K2 Space

Provides cost-effective, high-capability satellite buses

Principal Dynamics Engineer

Aerospace EngineeringConfirmed live in the last 24 hours
Full-timeLos Angeles, CA, USAIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

  • A bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, or mathematics.
  • At least 8 years of work experience in dynamics from industry or academia.

Responsibilities

  • Drive the definition and execution of dynamic testing at the component, subsystem, vehicle, and stack levels, including test planning and coordination, test analysis, and model correlation.
  • Lead innovation on cross-disciplinary analysis and test methodologies.
  • Own and evolve spacecraft dynamics approaches to optimize for the company’s business.
  • Develop time- and frequency-domain physics models using finite element analysis, such as Nastran, and custom-built software, such as Python; set technical direction for shared analysis tooling, including version control and continuous-integration practices for analysis and test-data pipelines.
  • Create software tools to support data processing and simulation frameworks.
  • Collaborate with design engineers, analysts, and external customers to develop payload products.
  • Apply first principles in developing frameworks for dynamics and non-dynamics analyses.
  • Lead code reviews for simulation and analysis tools.
  • Use analysis and test results to provide data-driven engineering guidance and decisions.
  • Write high-quality technical documentation of tests and simulations.
  • Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior and mid-level dynamics engineers, contributing to the growth of the analysis team.
  • Derive loads, environments, and other dynamics-driven design and test criteria for payload and hardware teams, including vibration, shock, and jitter maximum predicted environments and response-limit derivation, such as NASA 7004C; develop new response-limiting methodologies as needed.
  • Own coupled loads analysis for vehicle programs, including bus-and-payload superelement/Craig-Bampton model builds for ascent and on-orbit dynamic environments, through test-level definition.
  • Lead jitter and pointing performance analysis, including Monte Carlo dispersion modeling and dynamic coupling with guidance, navigation, and control loops.
  • Direct vibroacoustic analysis, including patch-method framework development, and lead acoustic testing of the vehicle.
  • Drive definition of vehicle- and stack-level modal test and analysis methodologies, including ground and flight test correlation.

Desired Qualifications

  • A master's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, or mathematics.
  • Strong understanding of low- and high-frequency dynamics, including vibration, acoustics, shock, and modal testing.
  • Deep experience with testing and measurements.
  • Deep experience with finite element analysis software, such as FEMAP and Nastran.
  • Strong experience in software development in Python.
  • Deep knowledge of digital signal processing, statistics, and structural mechanics.
  • Ability to identify and solve complex problems with little to no supervision or direction.
  • Ability to communicate analysis and test insights effectively.
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced, unstructured startup environment.
  • Experience with coupled loads analysis and Craig-Bampton/superelement model reduction techniques.
  • Experience with jitter and pointing performance analysis, including Monte Carlo methods for dispersion modeling.
  • Familiarity with rigid-body dynamics and guidance, navigation, and control-coupled analysis, including dynamic coupling with controllers and pointing impacts.
  • Experience with multibody dynamics simulation, including rigid-body dynamics and familiarity with Lagrangian formulations; familiarity with LS-DYNA is a plus.
  • Experience with vibroacoustic analysis, such as patch, diffuse-field, Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA, e.g., Wave6), or Boundary Element Method (BEM).
  • Familiarity with HALT/HASS testing and dynamics-driven PCBA-level failure mechanisms, such as solder joint fatigue and component lead flexure.
  • Experience building and maintaining shared analysis tooling, including version control and continuous-integration practices.

About the Company

K2 Space

Provides cost-effective, high-capability satellite buses

K2 Space provides cost-effective, high-capability satellite buses—the main structure and systems of a satellite excluding the payload. Buses include core subsystems such as power, attitude control, propulsion, thermal management, and communications, and are modular for customers to add their own payloads, enabling large satellites at a lower cost. The company focuses on the bus to decouple payload costs from spacecraft, leveraging an experienced team from SpaceX and Blue Origin to offer affordable, scalable platforms for commercial, scientific, and defense missions. Its goal is to unlock ambitious space missions by making high-capability satellites affordable and expanding opportunities in space exploration and development.

Company size
201-500
Company stage
Series D
Total funding
$943.6M
Headquarters
Torrance, CA
Founded
2022

Recently Posted Jobs

Explore more opportunities at K2 Space

See more jobs