Senior CAE Engineer - Crash Safety and Powertrain Analysis

The role

You will evaluate structural integrity, crashworthiness, battery safety, and failure modes of components and assemblies. You will work with Powertrain and Battery teams to ensure safety through impact, crush, vibration, thermal, and post-crash events.

What you will do

• Own crash safety analysis strategy for full-vehicle and component-level events.
• Design and develop custom mechanical test equipment for batteries and aircraft hardware.
• Build and execute nonlinear explicit-dynamics models for crash, impact, and abuse events.
• Translate analysis results into design changes.
• Own durability analysis for powertrain components including busbars, motors, and batteries.
• Develop rapid first-principles studies and reduced-order models.
• Build and maintain vehicle-level and detailed finite element models.
• Plan analysis correlation with the test team.
• Support crash safety, abuse, and structural validation campaigns.
• Collaborate with design, powertrain, battery, systems, reliability, and test teams.

Required qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in CAE, structural analysis, crash safety, durability, or an equivalent discipline.
• Demonstrated ownership of full-vehicle or component crash analysis.
• Deep capability with nonlinear finite element analysis and explicit dynamics.
• Experience with LS-DYNA, Abaqus/Explicit, Radioss, PAM-CRASH, or equivalent tools.
• History of performing durability analysis involving fatigue, random vibration, shock, harmonic response, thermal-mechanical cycling, and bolted joints.
• Knowledge of powertrain hardware such as motors, busbars, and battery packs.
• Proficiency with Nastran, FEMAP, ANSA, HyperMesh, nCode, ANSYS, Simcenter 3D, or equivalent CAE software.
• Proficiency with NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent CAD software.
• Proficiency with Python, MATLAB, or equivalent scripting tools.
• Strong engineering fundamentals in mechanics, energy absorption, nonlinear material behavior, plasticity, contact, joint modeling, fasteners, composites, metals, polymers, and failure modes.
• Proven track record of analysis correlation.
• Must be eligible to work in the US.

Nice to have

• Experience in automotive, aerospace, motorsports, or other safety-critical industries.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• Paid time off

Before you apply

• Must be eligible to work in the US.

About the company

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. They design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system to deliver food, medicine and essential goods.