Simulation / FEA Engineer – Airframe Team

About the role

Harmattan AI builds autonomous and scalable defense systems and is expanding its teams after a $200M Series B. As a Simulation / Mechanical Analysis Engineer on the Airframe team, you will be the reference for structural, vibration and impact simulation. You will move the team away from trial-and-error toward a predictive, simulation-driven approach: modeling the dynamic behaviour of carbon, plastic and aluminium assemblies, pinpointing critical zones and guiding design changes before building and flying. You will also build the tools, templates and methodology that let the rest of the team run reliable first-order analyses autonomously.

Key responsibilities

• Analyse and optimise carbon chassis (priority: quadcopter platforms) for stiffness, mass and resonance, acting as a performance safeguard.
• Perform modal (eigenfrequency) and harmonic/random vibration analyses on carbon-composite, plastic and aluminium assemblies.
• Run dynamic / explicit simulations of crash, shock and impact events (drop tests, crash and impact scenarios) to predict deformation, damage and failure.
• Run static, stiffness, fatigue and failure analyses to support design decisions and de-risk new concepts.
• Model laminated and pultruded carbon structures (ply orientation, anisotropy, bonded and bolted joints) and correlate them against physical tests.
• Define and run validation tests (modal hammer, accelerometers, shaker, drop / impact tests, flight data) and correlate simulation with measurement.
• Translate simulation results into design changes (geometry, stiffeners, material, joints) and implement some of them in CAD.
• Develop reusable tools, scripts, templates and calculation sheets, and document the simulation methodology.
• Collaborate with design, electronics and industrialisation teams and maintain documentation on Confluence.

Required profile

• Master's degree in Mechanical / Aerospace Engineering, Structural Mechanics or a related field.
• Proven FEA experience focused on modal / vibration / dynamic analysis.
• Solid grounding in structural dynamics and vibration theory (natural frequencies, mode shapes, damping, resonance, FRF).
• Experience in crash / shock / impact simulation (explicit dynamics) for drop-test, crash and impact scenarios, including strain-rate and failure modelling.
• Strong knowledge of composite materials (carbon-fibre laminates, anisotropy, layups, joints, damage and delamination criteria).
• Ability to correlate simulation with physical testing and judge model validity critically.
• Rigour, ownership and clear documentation habits; able to explain results simply to non-specialists.

Required skills

• FEA software such as Ansys, Abaqus, Nastran, OptiStruct or COMSOL.
• Explicit dynamics (Ansys LS-DYNA, Abaqus/Explicit, Radioss or similar).
• CAD, SolidWorks preferred.
• Scripting and automation with Python, MATLAB or APDL.