Senior Staff Engineer - FEA

About Us:

AAR Corp. (NYSE: AIR) is a global aerospace and defense aftermarket solutions company that employs more than 6,000 people across over 60 sites in over 20 countries. Headquartered in the Chicago, Illinois area, AAR supports commercial and government customers in more than 100 countries through four operating segments:
Parts Supply, Integrated Solutions, Repair and Engineering and Expeditionary Services. AAR’s purpose is to empower people to build innovative aerospace solutions today so you can safely reach your destination tomorrow. The company’s mission is to go above and beyond to provide value-driven aerospace aftermarket solutions to meet the evolving needs of our customers worldwide. AAR constantly searches for the right thing to do for its customers, employees, partners and for society.

Description

Summary: The ideal candidate will possess expertise in structural finite element analysis of multi-component assembly systems for military environments. Ensures reliability, efficiency, and compliance with demanding operational and transportability conditions. Performs a variety of engineering work including such areas as production design, manufacturing processing, test, analysis, development, and efficiency.

What you will be responsible for:

• Structural and Component Design: Proficiency in analyzing complete container and shelter designs. Conducts engineering analysis using FEA software to determine and certify the safety and performance of new designs. Works with design team to evaluate and refine initial engineering designs before full-scale production. Performs calculations and simulations to identify potential design issues and recommends solutions. Analytically proves out new engineering designs to verify customer requirements and industry standards are met.
  
  Strong experience with Nastran, FEMAP, Ansys (or equivalent FEA software) for structural analysis including static stress, modal, response spectrum, random vibration, frequency response, transient stress, and critical buckling. Writes detailed engineering test reports for customer and government approval and certification. Familiarity with Creo, AutoCAD, Solidworks, Space Claim CAD 3D, or equivalent software models for structure analysis. Experience in Excel, Mathcad, Mathematica, or equivalent.
  
  Performs and directs testing to ensure compliance with engineering specifications.
• Environmental and Durability Engineering: Knowledge of designing systems to withstand shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, blowing sand/dust, and blowing rain tests. Familiarity with many aerospace, industry, and DoD standards including ISO 1496 or Convention for Safe Containers (CSC), MIL-STD-810, ASTM 1925, MIL-STD-1791 for transportability, and environmental testing. Expertise in material selection for corrosion resistance, lightweight construction, and overall robustness to ensure structural integrity under limited maintenance and harsh conditions.
• Integration and Optimization: Awareness of system integration challenges for military platforms. Ability to balance compact sizing for efficiency, and lightweight design while meeting performance requirements and maintaining operational redundancy for mission‑critical reliability.
• Prototyping, Testing, and Validation: Hands‑on experience building and validating prototypes, including testing at non‑standard conditions. Skills (including special considerations for stringent requirements), for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), ensuring structure meets or exceeds ratings under military‑specific demands.
• Troubleshooting and Field Support: Proven ability as a primary troubleshooter for systems in production and field settings, including root cause analysis and iterative design optimizations based on feedback.
• Regulatory Compliance and Documentation: Understanding of DoD regulations on transportability and environmental standards. Experience reviewing government technical specifications and designing equipment from the ground up to meet the requirements.
• Collaboration and Project Management: Ability to gather requirements through technical meetings and collaborate on cross‑functional aspects like interface…