Lead Thermal/Stress Analyst

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact?

At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainable. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business.

Are you ready for your next career challenge?

Leidos Defense provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Solutions for Defense include enterprise and mission IT, large-scale intelligence systems, command and control, geospatial and data analytics, cybersecurity, logistics, training, and intelligence analysis and operations support. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions.

Leidos Defense is seeking a Lead Thermal/Stress Analyst to join our team in Huntsville Alabama designing and analyzing the next generation of defense systems to protect America and its allies. You will perform stress and thermal analysis to support the design of cutting edge aerospace and defense programs. You will collaborate with designers and use Star CCM+ and FEMAP daily to ensure your team’s design meets requirements. You might work alongside the production team to install hardware or verify requirements. Then you’ll work with the testing team to put your hardware into action. This is not your average engineering position. You are applying to be part of a team of the most talented engineers in the region who push you to be better every day. This is a fast-paced program with unique technical challenges that will be a rewarding milestone in any engineering career.

If you are up for the challenge of joining this team, then apply now to be considered!

Primary Responsibilities 

• Are you ready to tackle complex engineering challenges? In this role, you will perform stress and thermal analysis on structural, electronic, and mechanical systems while supporting critical test activities. Assignments may require expertise in stress analysis, thermal analysis, or both.

• Stress analysis will involve analytical methods, finite element models/simulations, and advanced analysis tools. You will produce models, perform calculations, reduce data, and correlate test results to ensure accuracy and reliability.

• Thermal analysis will include hand analysis methods, finite volume models/simulations, finite element models/simulations, finite difference models/simulations, and other tools. You will conduct detailed steady-state and/or transient thermal analyses using industry-standard programs, producing models, performing calculations, reducing data, and correlating test results to thermal and flow models.

• You will collaborate closely with design and manufacturing teams to create designs that meet stringent performance, manufacturability, and schedule requirements.

• This is an in-office position with flexibility in schedule and work location. Remote work is the exception in your week, not the norm.

Basic Qualifications  

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or equivalent degree from an ABET-accredited university.

• Must have 4+ years of prior relevant industry experience with a bachelor’s degree, or 2+ years with a master’s degree.

• Direct experience performing stress and thermal analysis in the aerospace or defense industry.

• Demonstrated experience with commercial finite element analysis tools such as FEMAP/NX NASTRAN, PATRAN/MSC NASTRAN, ANSYS, Abaqus, or similar software is essential.

• Proven working knowledge of commercial thermal analysis and CFD tools like STAR-CCM+, Thermal Desktop/SindaFluint, ANSYS, or SolidWorks FlowSimulation.

• Strong technical writing, presentation, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

• Proven ability to thrive in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary engineering environment.

• Capable of working as part of a larger analysis team or working as the sole analyst on a project.

• U.S. Citizenship is required and eligibility to obtain and maintain a Final Secret Clearance.

• Residency in the Huntsville, AL area or willingness to relocate to Huntsville, AL is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Fluid lumped capacitance modeling

• Electronics cooling analysis

• Thermal analysis of orthotropic materials

• FEMAP/Nastran

• Coupled thermal-structural analysis

• Bolted joint and weld analysis

• Dynamics analysis (modal, response spectrum, shock, vibration)

• Fatigue analysis

• Composite materials

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

September 2, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.