Certification Engineer

Our Mission: Fly to Space Twice in One Day At Dawn Aerospace, we're building a space transportation network with the frequency and reliability of aviation. Our Aurora spaceplane programme is developing the world's first rapidly reusable, rocket-powered aircraft capable of routine access to space. Every day, we are pushing the boundaries of aerospace engineering, designing, building, testing, and flying vehicles at a pace rarely seen in the industry. We're looking for a Composites Design Engineer to help design the structures that will make this possible. This is role where your designs will be realised. You'll see your work move rapidly from concept to manufacture, test and flight, working alongside a highly capable team building one of the world's most ambitious aerospace programmes. What You'll Do Design primary and secondary composite airframe structures, including fuselage, wings, control surfaces and internal support structures. Develop laminate schedules, manufacturing drawings, tooling concepts, assembly fixtures and engineering documentation. Perform structural sizing, trade studies and design optimisation using analytical and numerical methods. Work closely with manufacturing, test and flight operations teams to ensure designs are practical, manufacturable and robust. Support structural testing, qualification activities and flight campaigns. Collaborate with aerodynamics, systems, avionics and propulsion engineers to deliver integrated vehicle solutions. Contribute to the continuous improvement of engineering processes, methodologies and standards. About You You're a practical engineer who enjoys turning ideas into hardware. You thrive in fast-moving environments, take ownership of your work, and enjoy solving difficult problems alongside other high-performing engineers. You are comfortable working across disciplines, engaging directly with manufacturing and testing, and balancing engineering excellence with speed of execution. Your Capabilities A degree in

Our Mission: Fly to space twice in a day. At Dawn Aerospace, we're building a future where access to space is as routine as air travel. Our Aurora spaceplane programme is developing a rapidly reusable, rocket-powered aircraft capable of transforming how humanity reaches space. This isn't a programme for people who want to spend years analysing a small part of a large aircraft. This is an opportunity to work on flight-critical structures for one of the most ambitious aerospace projects in the world, seeing your analysis directly influence the design, testing and flight of real hardware. We're looking for a Structural Analyst to join our Spaceplane team in Christchurch. You'll play a key role in developing and validating the structures that enable routine, scalable and sustainable access to space. Working alongside world-class engineers across aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, systems, composites and manufacturing, you'll help solve some of the toughest structural challenges in aerospace while contributing directly to hardware that flies. What you will do Perform structural analysis and validation of composite and metallic airframe structures and components. Develop analytical and finite element models to predict structural performance under flight, ground and test loading conditions. Evaluate the static strength, stiffness, stability, fatigue and damage tolerance of composite and metallic structures. Develop structural load cases and certification substantiation approaches. Plan and execute materials testing programmes to characterise and validate material properties in support of structural analysis, optimisation and certification activities. Support structural test planning, execution and correlation activities, including investigation of structural anomalies and failures. Collaborate closely with design engineers to optimise structures for weight, performance and manufacturability. Support design reviews and technical decision-making throughout the product lifec