JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Stress Engineer
Working Pattern: Full time; hybrid (on average three days per week on site)
Working location: Bristol (Filton) / Hybrid
Join Rolls-Royce Defence in Bristol and help safeguard the mechanical integrity of our engines across both New Product Introduction (NPI) and in-service programmes. As an early-career engineer, you’ll be aligned at interview to one of three Mechanical Integrity disciplines—Stress, Critical Parts Lifing, or Structural Systems Design (SSD)—based on your strengths and interests.

You’ll collaborate with design, test and manufacturing teams, building your skills in finite element analysis, fatigue/fracture, statistics and whole-engine behaviour while contributing to safety-critical hardware.

• Stress – predict mechanical behaviour of components/sub-systems and influence designs throughout the lifecycle, considering proof/ultimate strength, low & high cycle fatigue, creep, vibration, thermal loads, manufacturing anomalies, corrosion and extreme conditions.
• Critical Parts Lifing – manage the most safety-critical parts in service using mechanical analysis and statistics to set/maintain lifing controls; partner with design, manufacturing and customers to ensure safety levels are met in real-world operation.
• SSD (Structural Systems Design) – integrate all mechanical sub-systems into a full engine system; model and analyse static/dynamic behaviour (rotordynamics, vibration/balance) and extreme events (e.g., Fan Blade-Off) using methods from hand calcs to design-space optimisation. Typical tools include the Whole Engine Mechanical Model (WEMM)—a full-engine FE model—and test-to-analysis correlation.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

With this attractive opportunity you will get a chance to:

• Apply sound engineering judgement to analyse multi-source data and recommend robust, optimised design solutions.
• Specify and support mechanical experiments (rigs/engines); ensure safe execution and analyse results against models.
• Build/validate numerical models (e.g., FE), integrating cross-discipline boundary conditions (thermals, whole-engine, performance).
• Deliver defined technical work packages within a multi-discipline team to cost, schedule and quality.

To be successful in this role you will need to:

• Hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Engineering or STEM (or equivalent) with 0–3 years relevant experience (placements/industrial projects welcome).
• Understand fundamentals of stress analysis (static/dynamic), fatigue/fracture and materials behaviour; awareness of FE (ANSYS/ABAQUS/Nastran).
• Demonstrate analytical problem-solving, clear communication of complex results, and attention to safety and quality.
• Show cross-discipline awareness (manufacturing, aerodynamics/thermodynamics, thermal/mechanical analysis, cost, product definition)