Mechanical & Structural Engineer - Exo-Atmospheric Interceptor

About the role

Bliksem Exo is a four-nation European consortium developing an anti-ballistic missile system at operational pace; Destinus is the programme prime and responsible for the exo-atmospheric interceptor. In this role you take the vehicle from CAD to real, testable hardware, owning the mechanical design, structural analysis, packaging and test campaign, using real test data to validate assumptions and improve the vehicle baseline. It is a hands-on position within a small, specialized team.

Key responsibilities

• Own the mechanical design, producing and maintaining CAD for the structure and vehicle layout while managing subsystem packaging, mass and centre-of-gravity constraints
• Perform structural and stiffness analysis by hand calculation and FEA for flight loads, storage, handling and environmental conditions
• Own mechanical and thermal integration at vehicle level, coordinating interfaces with subsystem specialists
• Plan and run structural, vibration and environmental test campaigns, including test articles, fixtures, procedures and results
• Analyse test data, correlate results with structural models and requirements and feed findings back into the design
• Manage mechanical suppliers, drawings, tolerances, manufacturing requirements and externally produced components

Required profile

• BSc, MSc or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or a related field
• 10+ years of experience in mechanical design of flight hardware such as missiles, spacecraft, aircraft or comparable high-performance systems
• Hands-on CAD experience with SolidWorks, CATIA or similar tools
• Practical experience planning and running structural, vibration or environmental tests and interpreting the data
• Comfortable making engineering decisions under tight constraints on mass, space, performance and schedule