ROXUK00103 – Stress Engineer

Roxel is an Anglo-French company that designs, develops and manufactures solid propellant rocket motors for use in tactical missiles. Its operations are spread across several sites in the UK and France and it has an annual turnover of about £100M and nearly 700 staff.

The UK operations are entirely based at Summerfield, Kidderminster, where we currently have two vacancies for Stress Engineers to work within the rocket motor design team.

The vacancies have potential to be an assistant level position ranging to a senior/principal position within the team depending on the level of relevant experience. Relevant experience in rocket motor design and modelling is not expected but knowledge of the defence industry would be considered advantageous, candidates interested in moving into this growing and exciting field are encouraged to apply.

The successful candidate will work as part of the wider Roxel team on all phases of the project life cycle including research, design, demonstration, development, production and customer support.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Responsibilities

The successful candidates will be the structural technical authority for several rocket motor products. Specific areas of responsibility will include conducting Finite Element Analysis (baseline software is Abaqus) of rocket motor hardware (metals, rubber/rigid insulants, bondlines) and the solid propellant charge. Support and training will be provided for the successful candidate, to fill any gaps in knowledge and experience. Responsibilities include:

• Stress analysis of rocket motor systems and components such as motor hardware and propellant charge under various loading conditions to support product Design, Development and Qualification. Typical analysis tasks are:
  • Linear / Non-linear static analysis
  • Transient thermomechanical analysis
  • Vibration analysis
  • Fatigue analysis
  • Viscoelastic analysis

• The use of various software packages and programming techniques to conduct analysis such as:
  • Abaqus
  • Altair-Hyperworks
  • Fortran
  • Python/Matlab/Mathcad

• Development of rocket motor structural test plans and involvement in the delivery and assessment of the structural testing results to support model validation and product certification.

• Responsible as the structural performance technical authority aspects of assigned projects, including supporting project meetings, project investigations, design reviews, and corresponding with the customer community.

• Delivery of key project certification documentation such as structural design records and qualification reports.

• Responsible for keeping updated with industry technical innovations and changes, building on their expertise, and acting as the technical lead of new technology research programmes.

• For experienced applicants applying for senior/principal stress engineering positions part of the role will involve peer review of others work and mentoring and training to aid colleague development.

EXPERIENCE AND BACKGROUND

Requirements

• Educated to degree level in Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering or another related discipline such as Material Science with FEA experience.
• Proficiency in the use of FEA Software (preferably Abaqus)
• Proficiency with the Microsoft office package, particularly Word, Excel and Access.
• Material science knowledge (In particular metals, composites, viscoelastic materials, adhesives)
• Experience with CAD modelling and Altair-Hyperworks would be considered an advantage
• Basic programming ability in at least one language

Attributes

• Interest in advanced engineering and science
• Problem-solving skills
• Critical thinking
• Decision making
• Proficient and confident communicator
• Interpersonal skills
• Self-motivation
• The ability to commit to delivering tasks on time
• Professional work output standard
• Team player
• Ability to multitask

Support and training will be provided for the successful candidate, to fill any gaps in knowledge and experience.

Hybrid Working – Up to 1 days a week after completion of 6-month probation period.

How to apply

Please email your CV and motivation letter: uk_recruitment@roxelgroup.uk.com

Please specify your salary expectations as part of the process.

Please note: Obtaining a Security Clearance is a requirement of employment at Roxel UK. Please check guidelines by looking on the below link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels