Loads Development Lead, Missile Defense

Required

Qualifications & Experience

8+ years full lifecycle experience in

structural loads development for aerospace systems (spacecraft, missiles, interceptors, or launch vehicles)

Expertise in CLA, load derivation, and structural verification.

Demonstrated experience generating and managing loads across multiple mission phases and operational environments.

Base Salary:

Denver: $215,000-$285,000, Long Beach: $220,000-$295,000

Equity + Benefits

including Health, Dental, Vision, HRA/HSA options, PTO and paid holidays, 401K, Parental Leave

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education and experience.

True Anomaly is seeking a highly accomplished Loads Development Lead to serve as the technical authority for structural, mechanical, thermal, and coupled loads across a next-generation missile defense program. This is a generational opportunity to architect the structural design basis for one of the most demanding mission sets in aerospace engineering and missile defense.

In this role, you will have end-to-end ownership of loads development across the full system lifecycle, from ground handling and launch through on-orbit operations, intercept maneuvers, and end-of-life scenarios. You will establish and enforce program standards and processes for loads generation, combination, margins, and documentation; develop and validate Coupled Loads Analyses (CLA); derive Mass Acceleration Curves (MAC); and decompose system-level loads into clear design criteria and verification requirements.

The Loads Development Lead is the single point of accountability for loads methodology, assumptions, traceability, and technical rigor. You will define governing load cases, ensure consistency across subsystem analyses, adjudicate discrepancies, and act as steward of one of the program’s most critical technical artifacts: the Loads Data Book. Your work ensures that load environments are physically realistic, analytically defensible, and properly integrated into design, analysis, verification, certification, and safety margins across the program.

This role requires close collaboration with structures, dynamics, thermal, mechanisms, avionics, systems engineering, GNC, propulsion, trajectory, environments, and test teams to ensure system integrity and performance. You will lead design trade studies driven by load sensitivities, support risk reduction and anomaly resolution efforts, and represent the program in internal and external technical reviews.

As a senior technical leader, you will mentor analysts, shape best practices, and protect the intellectual rigor of the program’s structural design basis. You will play a central role in ensuring the success, credibility, and long-term robustness of True Anomaly’s missile defense architecture.