SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Isar Aerospace, a venture-backed New Space company, is seeking a Structural Design Engineer to join the Reusability Department. You will shape the structural architecture of next-generation reusable launch vehicles, bridging vehicle design, structural analysis, and integrated system layout to enable fast, informed architecture trade studies and development decisions.
Key Responsibilities:
- Define and evaluate vehicle-level structural loads, load paths, and critical sizing cases across ascent, recovery, landing, and ground operations
- Develop structural concepts and perform sizing activities using first-principles methods, reduced-order models, and targeted finite element analyses
- Translate reusable launcher architecture concepts into realistic, rapidly adaptable CAD layouts that support architecture trade studies and vehicle development
- Assess the integration of primary structures with tanks, fluid systems, aerodynamic surfaces, landing systems, mechanisms, and other vehicle subsystems
- Create and maintain structural models of appropriate fidelity to evaluate feasibility, mass, stiffness, interfaces, and overall vehicle performance
- Identify structural drivers, design constraints, and cross-system dependencies to guide architecture decisions and system optimization
- Support multidisciplinary vehicle development by balancing structural performance, operability, manufacturability, and reuse requirements
- Communicate structural implications, trade-offs, and recommendations to engineering stakeholders across the program
The role offers the opportunity to work on cutting-edge reusable launch vehicle technology in a fast-growing, privately funded company with strong investor backing. You will collaborate with driven, talented engineers passionate about space innovation and democratizing access to space.
Requirements:
- 3–7 years of experience in aerospace, launch vehicles, aircraft structures, or other highly engineered structural products
- Experience developing structural concepts and layouts from requirements through preliminary design
- Experience contributing to vehicle-level architecture trades and multidisciplinary system development
- Strong understanding of structural mechanics, load paths, structural sizing, and vehicle-level structural behavior
- Proficiency with FEM tools (e.g., Abaqus, Nastran, Ansys, HyperWorks) for both conceptual assessments and targeted detailed analyses
- Ability to develop reduced-order models and engineering approximations from higher-fidelity analyses
- Strong CAD skills (e.g., CATIA, Siemens NX or comparable) with the ability to rapidly create and iterate structurally credible vehicle layouts
- Systems-thinking mindset with the ability to balance structural performance, integration, operability, and program objectives
- Structured problem solver with sound engineering judgment and a pragmatic approach to trade-offs
- Fluent in English, both written and spoken
Bonus Skills:
- Experience with reusable launch vehicles, recovery systems, landing systems, or deployable mechanisms
- Fluent in German
