Contract Mechanical Design Engineer - Propulsion

Contract Mechanical Design Engineer — Propulsion

💰 Open hourly rate

📅 12-month contract - 40 hours per week

📍 Fully remote (US-based)

A space & defense company is hiring Mechanical Design Engineers across multiple new programs. You’ll own solid rocket motor or liquid propulsion hardware from concept through manufacture and test.

The programs are moving. What’s needed are engineers who back their designs with their own analysis and work remotely without waiting to be told who to talk to.

🔧 What you’ll be doing

• Design propulsion hardware: insulation, thrusters, nozzles, closures and structures
• Design mechanisms for high-temperature, refractory environments
• Run structural, dynamic and thermal analyses to optimize designs
• Apply GD&T and run worst-case and statistical tolerance analyses
• Design for manufacture across additive, machining, composites, casting and welding
• Support test and integration, and own mass budgets and technical risk

✅ What you’ll need

• Degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
• 8+ years of mechanical design experience
• Hands-on design of solid rocket motor or liquid propulsion hardware
• Hardware taken from concept through manufacture and test
• Strong CAD (NX, Creo or SolidWorks), FEA and thermal analysis
• Expert in GD&T and tolerance stack-ups
• Self-directed, with clear communication in design reviews
• US-based and eligible to work on ITAR-controlled programs

⭐ Nice to have

• Rocket motor insulation or thruster design
• Refractory metals, including additive manufacturing
• Hardware taken through qualification
• Prior contract or independent consulting work, you land and add value fast

📩 Interested?

Click apply with an updated copy of your resume. I’ll come back to you within 48 hours. If you don’t hear back within 48 hours, please assume you haven’t been successful on this occasion.