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Salary: USD 200,000 - 320,000 / annual
CHAOS Industries is seeking a Principal Airframe Engineer to lead structural design and development for a Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA) program. The company, founded in 2022 and backed by $1 billion in funding from investors including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners, is redefining defense technology through Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™) that empower warfighters, commercial operators, and border protection teams.
In this role, you will own the airframe structural design approach from concept through qualification and production transition, with emphasis on modularity, producibility, and design-for-mass-manufacture principles enabling rapid, scalable build rates across multiple production sites. This is a senior technical leadership position suited to someone with deep aircraft structures expertise and a strong manufacturing/producibility mindset, particularly for attritable, low-cost, or distributed-production aircraft concepts.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead structural design and architecture of the modular airframe system, including primary/secondary structure, load paths, and major structural interfaces
- Define and enforce modular design architecture supporting interchangeable sections, common interfaces, and scalable configuration variants
- Own structural trade studies balancing performance, weight, cost, and producibility at scale
- Ensure structural design integrates cleanly with propulsion, avionics, payload, and subsystem installations across modular boundaries
- Apply design-for-manufacture and design-for-assembly (DFM/DFA) principles throughout to enable high-rate, low-touch-labor production
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering on producible joint designs, tooling concepts, and assembly sequences for distributed/multi-site production
- Drive design decisions reducing part count, fastener count, and non-recurring tooling complexity without compromising structural integrity or airworthiness
- Support make/buy and sourcing strategy with Supply Chain to ensure designs align with available/scalable material and fabrication sources
- Lead or oversee structural analysis (static strength, fatigue/damage tolerance, dynamic loads) supporting design maturity and airworthiness substantiation
- Define and execute structural test program (coupon, element, component, full-scale static/fatigue testing) required for design substantiation
- Support airworthiness qualification per military airworthiness criteria (MIL-HDBK-516) and/or civil-derivative standards
- Maintain structural analysis and substantiation documentation for design reviews
- Serve as senior technical authority for airframe structures, representing structures at PDR, CDR, and government technical interchange meetings
- Partner with Systems Engineering, Program Management, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to align structural design maturity with program schedule and cost targets
- Identify and manage structural/technical risks including material supply, fatigue/damage tolerance uncertainty, and producibility risk at scale
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related discipline (advanced degree preferred)
- 15+ years of aircraft structural/airframe design experience, including demonstrated ownership of structural design from concept through qualification/production
- Strong background in structural analysis methods (static strength, fatigue, damage tolerance) and associated analysis tools (NASTRAN, FEMAP, or equivalent FEA tools)
- Demonstrated experience applying design-for-manufacture/design-for-assembly principles to reduce production cost and complexity at scale
- Experience with composite and/or advanced joining methods (bonding, friction stir welding) suited to high-rate production
- Experience supporting structural substantiation for military and/or civil airworthiness requirements
- Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516 (Airworthiness Certification Criteria) or equivalent military airworthiness processes
Preferred:
- Direct experience with modular, attritable, low-cost, or mass-producible aircraft/unmanned aircraft system (UAS) programs
- Ability to obtain/maintain Secret/Top Secret/SCI clearance
