Composite Engineer

Day-to-day Responsibilities:\n- Design lightweight composite airframes, wings, fuselages, launch tubes, radomes, and structural components.\n- Select suitable composite materials including carbon fibre, glass fibre, Kevlar, honeycomb cores, foam cores, prepregs, and resins.\n- Develop laminate schedules, ply orientations, and structural reinforcement strategies.\n- Design moulds, tooling, jigs, fixtures, and manufacturing aids.\n- Perform structural calculations and FEA for composite components using ANSYS or equivalent software.\n- Optimise components for weight, stiffness, strength, vibration, and manufacturability.\n- Execute manufacturing processes including:\n- Hand lay-up\n- Vacuum bagging\n- Vacuum infusion\n- Prepreg lay-up\n- Autoclave/Oven curing\n- Compression moulding (where applicable)\n- Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for composite production.\n- Conduct material qualification and validation testing.\n- Perform failure analysis and root cause investigations.\n- Work closely with aerodynamics, mechanical, electronics, manufacturing, and flight testing teams.\n- Support prototype development through production readiness.\n- Ensure quality standards through dimensional inspection and NDT techniques such as ultrasonic testing, tap testing, and thermography where applicable.\n- Continuously improve manufacturing efficiency, yield, and cost. Composite engineers in aerospace commonly bridge design, analysis, tooling, manufacturing, testing, and quality functions.\n\nMission Execution\n- Battlefield Decision Making\n- Strategic Operations\n- High-Stakes Leadership\n- Rapid Problem Solving\n- National Security Awareness\n\nResponsibilities\n- Assist in drone design, assembly, and testing\n- Work on aerodynamics and propulsion\n- Support flight testing and data collection