Job Title: Senior Stress Engineer
Working Pattern: Full time; hybrid (on average three days per week on site)
Working location: Bristol (Filton) / Hybrid
Help shape the next generation of Defence propulsion by leading complex mechanical integrity work across NPI and mature programmes. We will align you at interview to Stress, Critical Parts Lifing or SSD based on your expertise and interests. You’ll own critical analyses, guide design decisions, mentor juniors and interface with senior stakeholders, customers and authorities to assure safety, reliability and lifecycle value.
Stress – set analysis strategies across proof/ultimate, LCF/HCF, creep and multi-physics interactions (vibration, thermal, contact), drive design optimisation and champion modelling best practice from concept to in-service/repair/disposal.
Critical Parts Lifing – define and maintain lifing methodologies for safety-critical hardware, blending fracture mechanics, probabilistic/statistical approaches and field data; partner across design/manufacture/maintenance and with customers on usage profiles.
SSD – lead whole-engine modelling and decision-making on static/dynamic behaviour (rotordynamics, vibration/balance) and extreme events (e.g., FBO); mature WEMM fidelity, correlate test data to predictions and steer system-level trade-offs.
Why Rolls-Royce?
Rolls-Royce is one of the most enduring and iconic brands in the world and has been at the forefront of innovation for over a century. We design, build and service systems that provide critical power to customers where safety and reliability are paramount.
We are proud to be a force for progress, powering, protecting and connecting people everywhere.
We want to ensure that the excellence and ingenuity that has shaped our history continues into our future and we need people like you to come and join us on this journey.
You’ll be joining our Defence business in Bristol, influencing programmes and standards that set the bar for mechanical integrity across our portfolio.
You’ll lead technically significant work packages, shape methods and tools, and contribute to certification and in-service safety cases. We support professional registration and provide access to technical communities, specialist training and progression into specialist/management paths. You’ll have broad stakeholder exposure with clear impact on programme milestones.
What we offer
We offer excellent development opportunities, a competitive salary, and exceptional benefits. These include bonus, employee support assistance and employee discounts.
Your needs are as unique as you are. Hybrid working is a way in which our people can balance their time between the office, home, or another remote location. It’s a locally managed and flexed informal discretionary arrangement. As a minimum we’re all expected to attend the workplace for collaboration and other specific reasons, on average three days per week.
What you will be doing
With this attractive opportunity you will get a chance to:
Lead mechanical integrity strategies and reviews; set analysis plans and make balanced, evidence-based recommendations.
Oversee/high-end analyses and tests (rig/engine), ensuring robust model validation and test correlation; sign-off where delegated.
Develop/improve methods, FE models and toolchains (e.g., ANSYS, ABAQUS, MSC Nastran; WEMM in SSD), including automation and design-space/optimisation workflows.
Mentor junior engineers and coordinate multi-discipline delivery to cost/schedule/quality; engage with customers, authorities and certification.
Who we’re looking for
At Rolls-Royce we put safety first, do the right thing, keep it simple and make a difference. These principles form the behaviours that guide us and are an essential component of our assessment process. They are the fundamental qualities that we seek for all roles.
To be successful in this role you will need to:
Bring significant experience in mechanical integrity within aero/propulsion or equivalent high-integrity domain (typically 5+ years), with mastery in either Stress, Lifing or SSD.
Demonstrate advanced expertise in stress/FEA (static/dynamic), fracture & fatigue, or whole-engine dynamics (rotordynamics/vibration/FBO) and test correlation.
Show strong materials and fracture mechanics understanding, statistics/probabilistics for lifing, and sound systems engineering judgement.
Communicate complex analyses clearly to senior stakeholders/customers/regulators; influence design and programme decisions.
We are an equal opportunities employer. We’re committed to developing a diverse workforce and an inclusive working environment. We believe that people from different backgrounds and cultures give us different perspectives which are crucial to innovation and problem solving. We believe the more diverse perspectives we have, the more successful we’ll be. By building a culture of caring and belonging, we give everyone who works here the opportunity to realise their full potential.
We welcome applications from people with a refugee background.
You can learn more about our global Inclusion strategy at Our people
To work for the Rolls-Royce Defence business you may need to hold a Security Check (SC) clearance. Rolls-Royce will support the application for Security Clearance if you do not currently already have this in place. Due to the nature of work the business conducts and the protection of certain assets, for some roles we can only progress applications from UK nationals or, in MoD-approved cases, dual nationals.