Senior/Principal Materials, Structures, and Thermal Engineer

Our client, an innovative early-stage company in the defence and security sector, is seeking a Senior/Principal Materials, Structures and Thermal Engineer to support the development of advanced air vehicles. This permanent role offers the opportunity to join a small, senior engineering team delivering a multi-year programme from initial concept through design, manufacture and testing. Working with technical leadership, the successful engineer will take ownership of structural and thermal design across the vehicle, lead materials selection and contribute to key technical decisions. The role will suit an experienced aerospace, UAV, drone or high-reliability engineering professional who enjoys autonomy, complex technical challenges and working in a fast-moving environment.Key Responsibilities:Lead materials selection for aerospace structures and components, balancing performance, manufacturability, cost and availabilityDevelop and maintain materials property data, coordinate supplier technical evaluations and oversee quality assurance for manufactured partsLead structural design from concept architecture through to detailed analysis, sizing and margin of safety assessmentsDevelop structural models using hand calculations, first-principles methods and Finite Element Analysis (FEA)Lead thermal design and analysis, including heat transfer modelling, temperature estimation, insulation and thermal management studiesInterpret thermal and structural analysis results against test data ..... full job details .....