Stress Engineer

Join Rolls-Royce Defence 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.

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, contributing to programmes that underpin UK capability for decades to come. You’ll gain broad exposure across components and sub-systems, develop deep domain expertise, and learn industry-standard tools (e.g., ANSYS, ABAQUS, MSC Nastran, MATLAB/Python). We’ll support your professional development (including chartership routes) and provide mentorship from experienced analysts. You’ll have real ownership of meaningful work packages that move the needle on airworthiness and reliability.

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:

• 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.

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:

• 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).

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 | Rolls-Royce

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.