Senior Lecturer in Aircraft Structural Design

Full time starting salary is normally in the range of £60,009 to £69,505 per annum with potential progression to £85,000 per annum

Location: Cranfield, Bedfordshire

Are you motivated by the impacts of the aerospace industry and air travel and want to play your role in driving progress towards zero emissions aviation? Have you considered using your industry skills, knowledge and experience in academia? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for aeronautics specialists with industry experience to join our Aircraft Structures team.  

About the opportunity

We are seeking people to join the team who are as passionate as we are about the field of Aircraft configurations. You will join a supportive team environment with peers from industry and academia.  

This is a unique role for experts in aeronautics. As such, we are open to innovative ideas and thinking creatively about the design of new and exciting educational products for Aeronautics and recruiting the right people to achieve this. So, whether your expertise has been developed in an operational engineering leadership position, or in academia we are open to applications from a variety of backgrounds. 

We will support you in getting involved in teaching on novel aircraft configurations ranging from zero emissions hydrogen propulsion through to supersonic transport and eVTOL. 

In return for your knowledge and expertise, you will join a collaborative team of world-class experts in their field at the Centre for Aeronautics. Cranfield offers an attractive pension, generous annual leave and flexible working arrangements, as well as career progression opportunities. You will receive training and support to enable you to apply your industry knowledge to a new context, including through qualifications in academic practice and education. You may be eligible to be considered for a PhD. 

About the Centre

The Centre for Aeronautics traces its history back to 1946, when it was set the mission of preparing engineers to develop new products for the nascent British aerospace industry. We've been teaching aeronautics-related topics ever since, either through our world-class postgraduate MSc courses, guiding our vibrant PhD contingent or through a range of CPD courses we deliver to industry professionals across the world. You'll be joining a 45 strong team of world-class staff working across aircraft design, aerodynamics, dynamics and control, modelling and simulation, advanced lightweight structures and sustainable aviation. We take pride in supporting our students as they develop towards talented industrial professionals. Our large portfolio of research projects working with the world's best-known aerospace companies produces world-class research and keeps our academic content at the cutting edge.

About the Role 

The Centre for Aeronautics is seeking a new Senior Lecturer in Aircraft Structural Design. The position will be mainly responsible for the development, leadership and delivery of flagship teaching at the postgraduate level in various topics related to aircraft structures analysis and design, as well as for engaging with the delivery of industrially sponsored projects.

About You

We would love to hear from you if you are passionate about aerospace and the contribution and value of your specialised topic within this field. Your ideal working environment will be collaborative and open to new learning and experience, with personal satisfaction taken in supporting others to grow their knowledge and skills through our teaching activities. Professionally you will be curious and creative, looking for new solutions and applying thinking from outside the traditional aerospace sector. All are welcomed within a friendly, supportive, ambitious and energetic team environment.

With a BSc/MSc in aeronautical science, preferably in airframe structural design & analysis, you will have experience in high impact, cross-disciplinary and industrially relevant project engagement, and be experienced in research delivery and be able to evidence successful funding proposal bidding. You will also have relevant teaching preparation & delivery experience, and ideally experience in research student supervision. 

Your knowledge of aeronautical structural analysis and design skills, ideally accumulated in an industrial setting, will span across any combination of the following: airworthiness requirements knowledge and application; metallic and/or composite airframe structures analysis and design; fatigue and damage tolerance; and finite element analysis (NASTRAN / PATRAN / other). 

With excellent communication and presentation skills, you will have a collaborative leadership style along with evidence of good project and time management skills.

Further information about this position can be found in the job description.

About Us

As a specialist postgraduate university, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally. Learn more about Cranfield and our unique impact here.

The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences is a leading provider of postgraduate level engineering education, research and technology support to individuals and organisations. Learn more here

Our Values and Commitments

Our shared, stated values help to define who we are and underpin everything we do: Ambition; Impact; Respect; and Community. Find out more here.

We aim to create and maintain a culture in which everyone can work and study together and realise their full potential. We are a Disability Confident Employer and proud members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme. We are committed to actively exploring flexible working options for each role and have been ranked in the Top 30 family friendly employers in the UK by the charity Working Families. Find out more about our key commitments to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Flexible Working here.

Working Arrangements

Collaborating and connecting are integral to so much of what we do. Our Working Arrangements Framework provides many staff with the opportunity to flexibly combine on-site and remote working, where job roles allow, balancing the needs of our community of staff, students, clients and partners.

How to apply                                     

For an informal discussion, please contact Prof Howard Smith (Head of Aircraft Design Group) howard.smith@cranfield.ac.uk or Prof Mark Westwood (Head of Centre for Aeronautics) mark.westwood@cranfield.ac.uk.

To apply please click above 'Apply' Button. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details on E: hrrecruitment@cranfield.ac.uk. Please quote reference number 4925.

Closing date for receipt of applications: 10 November 2024

This role may require you to have the ability to obtain UK Security Clearance.

Please note that we reserve the right to close this advert prior to the stated closing date should we receive a sufficient number of applications. Therefore, we would encourage you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.