Simulation Engineer
Posted 19 Aug 2026
Advertised as “Simulation / FEA Engineer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- On-Site
- Contract
- Full-time
No salary listed for this role.
Field of studyAerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Structural Mechanics (or related)
Study levelMaster's
About Us
Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces.
Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.
About the Role
As a Simulation / Mechanical Analysis Engineer on Harmattan AI's Airframe team, you will be the reference for structural, vibration and impact simulation. Your mission is to replace our current trial-and-error loop with a predictive, simulation-driven approach: model the dynamic behaviour of our carbon / plastic / aluminium assemblies, pinpoint the critical zones, and guide design changes before we build and fly. You will also build the tools, templates and methodology that allow the rest of the team to run reliable first-order analyses autonomously. This is primarily a simulation role, with a meaningful share of hands-on design to implement and validate your own recommendations.
Responsibilities
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Carbon chassis analysis & optimisation: Analyse and optimise carbon chassis (priority: quadcopter platforms) — stiffness, mass, resonance — and act as a performance safeguard to prevent regressions across projects.
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Modal & vibration analysis: Perform modal (eigenfrequency) and harmonic/random vibration analyses on carbon-composite, plastic and aluminium assemblies to identify natural frequencies, mode shapes and resonance risks relative to operating excitations (motors, props, flight loads).
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Crash / shock & impact analysis: Perform dynamic / explicit simulations of crash, shock and impact events (drop tests, crash and impact scenarios) on composite and metallic structures — predicting deformation, damage and failure, and defining design changes to improve survivability and qualify structural limits.
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Structural FEA: Run static, stiffness, fatigue and failure analyses to support design decisions and de-risk new concepts early.
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Composite materials & failure: Apply solid knowledge of composite materials (carbon laminates, anisotropy, delamination and damage/failure criteria) to model both quasi-static and impact behaviour realistically.