Design Engineer – Level 5

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman · Aerospace · Corinne, UT +1 · Mechanical

This role is for a Design Engineer specializing in internal insulation for rocket motors at Northrop Grumman. The engineer will be responsible for overseeing and performing peer reviews of insulation design and analysis, ensuring consistency across programs, owning design command media, establishing training aids, mentoring junior engineers, and supporting manufacturing and R&D projects. The position requires a strong technical background in insulation design, materials, testing, and fabrication, with expert knowledge of specific in-house software.

What you'd actually do

  1. Oversee and perform peer reviews of all aspects of internal insulation design and analysis calculations, analysis results, annotated models and documentation
  2. Ensure analysis methods and techniques used within the insulated composite case group are consistent across all programs and meet company standards, as tailored for the specific program, e.g. SLS and BOLE have some unique differences in insulation design methodology.
  3. Own the insulated design command media – checklists, standards, lessons learned, design manuals
  4. Establish and maintain specific insulation design and analysis training aids for the insulated composite case group
  5. Ensure analysis techniques and methods improve over time to maintain state of the art analytical tool capabilities

Skills

Required

  • Bachelor’s degree with 12 years of professional experience – OR – Master’s degree with 10 years of professional experience – OR – PhD with 8 years of professional experience
  • 12 years minimum of experience with internal insulation design and analysis engineering team
  • Strong technical knowledge in the fundamentals of internal insulation design, analysis, materials, testing and fabrication methods
  • Created design and analysis reports (DAR)s including reports where static test data is available (prediction phase), after static test data is available (verification phase)
  • Must have strong in-depth technical understanding of internal insulation design and analysis methodologies used for all active rocket motor programs, e.g. strategic and NASA programs
  • Expert level understanding of in-house codes such as MDRCalc and RMIID software
  • Extensive experience reviewing NX annotated models, drawings, specifications, test plans and reports
  • Extensive experience with internal insulation manufacturing/fabrication methods
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the capability to address high levels of management, detail-oriented design and analysis engineers, and both internal and external customers
  • Excellent time management and organizational skills
  • Demonstrated critical problem-solving skills with experience in several investigation teams or other similar issue resolution teams

Nice to have

  • Experience assessing heat transfer and fluid flow results (from other groups), for their impact on insulation design details, e.g. chamber, field joint, flap gap, etc.
  • Supporting experience assessing interfaces with case, igniter, nozzle, and liner.
  • In depth experience with liner systems is desirable
  • Deep understanding of insulation rubber and adhesive chemistry, cure cycles, and chemical species diffusion processes
  • In depth experience with insulation interactions with, and bonding to, composite and metallic cases and components
  • Experience running subscale motor tests to determine relative char and erosion performance for different insulation materials.
  • Experience evaluating material property and bondline test results to support evaluation of mechanical behavior for different insulation materials.
  • Played a major role in a static test or flight insulation investigations
  • Played a major role in significant insulation material obsolescence efforts
  • Direct experience designing and analyzing insulation designs (from cradle to grave) using internally developed design codes
  • Performed post fire measurement, evaluation and documentation

What the JD emphasized

  • Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government DoD Secret security clearance
  • 12 years minimum of experience with internal insulation design and analysis engineering team
  • Must have strong in-depth technical understanding of internal insulation design and analysis methodologies used for all active rocket motor programs, e.g. strategic and NASA programs