Structures Architect — Conceptual Design

Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose California building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing manufacturing and operating an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.

Our sights are set high and our problems are hard and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter drives better insights and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences and supports and celebrates all of our team members.

THE ROLE

As Structures Architect you will develop the conceptual-level airframe architecture for a next-generation eVTOL: laying out and sizing the major structural components evaluating alternative layouts and materials assessing packaging and volume and predicting weight for candidate configurations in close coordination with the vehicle powertrain and aero architects.

WHAT YOULL DO

• Develop conceptual-level airframe architecture and parametric structural models for the fuselage wing tail and nacelle structure including layout of the wing fuselage tailboom/empennage rotor/proprotor pylon mounts and landing gear attachment.
• Size major structural components (spars frames longerons skins major fittings) using classical analytical methods cross-sectional analysis tools such as sectionproperties and conceptual FEM.
• Predict and assess aeroelastic behavior at the conceptual level including flutter and whirl-flutter margins and structural modal characteristics using tools such as ASWING or similar beam-based aeroelastic codes.
• Partner with the Vehicle Architect on loads and outer mold line (OML) definition; since structural sizing is ultimately driven by elastic aeroelastic and loads behavior help identify the governing sizing cases (e.g. maneuver gust ground fatigue) for each major structural element.
• Evaluate and trade alternative structural layouts across candidate configurations for weight manufacturability and cost.
• Lead material selection trades for major structural elements composite vs. metallic vs. hybrid construction weighing weight cost manufacturability and schedule.
• Assess packaging and volume allocation across the airframe (battery/fuel volume powertrain bay payload bay avionics bays) in coordination with the powertrain and vehicle architects.
• Generate structural weight estimates for candidate configurations and track weight margins through the concept phase.

WHAT YOULL NEED

• Aircraft structural design background at the conceptual or preliminary design level; rotorcraft tiltrotor or eVTOL experience strongly preferred.
• Strong experience with aeroelastic analysis including flutter and whirl-flutter prediction and structural modal analysis.
• Structural sizing methods (classical beam/panel analysis weight-estimation relationships / CERs); experience with the sectionproperties Python library or similar cross-sectional analysis tools a plus.
• Experience with conceptual/preliminary structural and aeroelastic sizing tools such as ASWING NeoCASS OpenAeroStruct pyNastran SUAVE or similar.
• Working knowledge of composite and metallic airframe construction and their trade-offs.
• Strong Python programming experience for structural sizing and analysis automation.
• Experience generating parametric geometry for aircraft structure via commercial parametric CAD (e.g. CATIA NX SolidWorks) or code-based parametric geometry tools (e.g. OpenVSP CadQuery custom scripting).
• Understanding of systems integration and packaging constraints in volume-constrained aircraft.
• Experience with certification-driven structural requirements for civil aircraft (e.g. crashworthiness redundancy occupant protection) a plus.

At Archer we aim to attract retain and motivate talent with the skills and leadership needed to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Companys strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay range of $152800 - $227600. Actual compensation offered will be determined by job-related knowledge skills and experience.