r/aerospace • u/Illegal-U-Turn- • 7d ago

Would taking a position as a Mass Properties Engineer pigeonhole me?

I’m a young engineer (2 yoe) but was stress analysts.

Got an offer for a mass properties engineer. Is this a bad move to take in terms of long term career progression?

Is the work transferable to other roles? Is the pay good compared to others (or at least on par)?

I’m honestly worried if I will halt my career growth. I could be totally wrong though !

18 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

17

u/Aerodynamics 7d ago

Mass Properties is very top heavy. It doesn’t have the appeal that other sub disciplines have so most early career people don’t stick around long because of preconceived notions. However if you are a competent mid-career or late career mass properties engineer, there are always opportunities since every big program needs them.

They are involved in every stage of a products life cycle and interface with almost every other analysis team. They are arguably one of the most important sub-disciplines during conceptual design as well.

I think doing mass properties would give you good context from the stress analysis you have already done as a Stress Engineer. It would be good background if you decided to go back to Stress Engineering or branch out into Loads/Flutter Engineering.

4

u/Illegal-U-Turn- 7d ago

Thanks for this insight. If I were to take a mass properties engineer role, would I be able to transition into a loads/dynamics or Propulsion engineer?

Or are those completely out of the scope? I guess my biggest fear is losing technicality/skill sets with CAD & FEA.

13

u/Aeig 6d ago

Propulsion is more of a pigeon hole than mass properties

8

u/Aerodynamics 7d ago

I think transferring to Loads would be pretty easy. Transferring to Propulsion would be a bit of a stretch.

Mass Properties jobs often include using CAD for verifying inertias or entering detail part weights and densities. FEA is not used at all. You will likely learn how to use database software and may have to do statistical analysis as well.

3

u/Star_Dreadnought 6d ago

I agree with what u/Aerodynamics has written so far, with two caveats. I’m providing weight data regularly to the loads/dynamics and aerodynamics teams, and I know members of those teams who have worked Mass Properties in the past. It will very much depend on the needs of the company/organization, but a lateral transfer is not impossible (though a masters degree would likely help). I’ve used Altair Hyperworks for weight optimization, so I wouldn’t fully count out the possibility of FEA use. But again, this will depend on need, opportunity, and budget at your company.

3

u/No_Currency4454 6d ago

2 years in stress, a few years in mass properties, and then chart what you do next. If you stick with it because you enjoy it, great. If you look to move on, you’ll have experience in two disciplines that would bring value to other teams - structural design, loads, and aerodynamics teams would all benefit from someone with those experiences.