Structures Engineering Lead
ICON Aircraft
About the Job
Company: ICON Aircraft is a consumer sport plane manufacturer founded in response to dramatic regulatory changes by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). ICON has received wide attention and numerous design awards for its innovative A5 amphibious aircraft. The company has received over 600 advance orders and is rapidly moving towards production. ICON’s company culture blends extremely high work standards with a fun, powersports mindset. It’s a highly stimulating environment for those with the smarts and energy to keep up. View the company website to learn more: www.iconaircraft.com.
Role: Lead the production design of the all-composite airframe. Lead will have a small team of engineers and a mechanical designer to assist with the design of these systems.
Compensation: Commensurate with experience
Personality: Highly intelligent, confident, team player, analytical, problem solver, instinctual, decisive, competitive, charismatic, energetic, passionate, entrepreneurially minded (more startup, less big aerospace / corporate).
Reports to: CTO/VP Engineering
Primary Areas of
Responsibility: Product Design:
- Help set design requirements
- Set strategic design direction for the structural layout through manufacturing processes
- Provide design oversight and guidance for structures group
- Determine testing requirements and execute tests
Team:
- Assist in building design team (recruiting, interviewing)
- Set assignments for design team
Management:
- Track and report progress toward product and schedule goals
- Manage day-to-day design process
- Coordinate analysis with stress group lead
Success Criteria: Structure meets or exceeds weight goals while meeting strength requirements. Organized design documentation shows compliance with all requirements. Design is easy to build.
Required Experience:
- 10 years total experience
- 5+ years small aircraft design experience
- 3+ years project leadership experience
- Exceptional structural intuition
- Hands-on, practical engineering experience
- Extremely detail oriented and weight sensitive
- Good composite structural analysis ability (hand calculations and FEA)
- Creative composite design for weight savings
- New product development experience (“clean sheet design” experience)
- Focused on completing assignments (a strong finisher)
- Good design-for-manufacturing awareness/experience
- CAD proficient
- Structures testing experience
Ideal Experience:
- 10+ years experience designing light aircraft structures
- Has designed at least one complete aircraft structure
- Pro/E CAD experience (3+ years)
- Production startup experience – has seen at least one structure through production
- Experience with wet lamination / vacuum bag processes and limitations
- Power sport enthusiast (motorcycles, jet skis, cars, boats, etc)
- Licensed Pilot
- Experience building composite aircraft
- Industrial design interaction experience
Education: Bachelor's or Master's in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering