Principal Motor Design Engineer

Bascom Hunter is an aerospace and defense contractor delivering advanced electromechanical systems and engineering solutions to the Department of Defense and prime contractors. We design and build mission-critical hardware where reliability, precision, and performance are non-negotiable.

Bascom Hunter is seeking a Principal Motor Design Engineer to lead the design, analysis, and development of electric motors and integrated electromechanical systems for demanding aerospace and defense applications. This role serves as the senior technical authority for complete motor design, with emphasis on permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM), brushless DC (BLDC) motors, and AC synchronous motors.

The ideal candidate combines deep electric machine design expertise with strong mechanical and multiphysics engineering capability. This engineer will consider the motor as a complete rotating system, including electromagnetic, thermal, structural, rotordynamic, bearing, tolerance, material, drivetrain, manufacturing, and test considerations. The role requires hands-on experience taking motor designs from requirements and specification development through analysis, prototype build, qualification, and production.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of PMSM, BLDC, AC synchronous, and other specialty motors for aerospace and defense applications from requirements definition through production release.
• Review system and customer requirements, develop motor-level requirements and interfaces, and author detailed motor specifications and verification criteria.
• Perform electromagnetic motor design and simulation using ANSYS Motor-CAD and related ANSYS tools, including magnetic circuit, winding, torque, loss, efficiency, and performance analysis.
• Perform and participate in coupled thermal, structural, stress, and dynamic analysis, considering winding and magnet temperatures, thermal paths, thermal growth, fatigue, shock, vibration, and overspeed conditions.
• Design and analyze the complete rotating assembly, including rotors, shafts, housings, bearing systems, magnet retention, interfaces, and associated mechanical components.
• Evaluate rotor dynamics, including critical speeds, rotor stiffness, bearing effects, vibration, unbalance response, and resonance risk.
• Select and analyze bearings, including load capacity, life, preload, fits, lubrication, thermal effects, stiffness, and environmental considerations.
• Develop GD&T schemes and tolerance stack-ups for air gaps, bearing fits, rotor/stator concentricity, runout, interfaces, and other critical dimensions.
• Support rotor balancing strategy, vibration analysis, balance correction, and resolution of rotating-machine vibration issues.
• Design and integrate motor mechanical interfaces with gearboxes, couplings, splines, actuators, and other drivetrain components.
• Lead trade studies across electromagnetic, thermal, structural, mechanical, manufacturing, reliability, cost, and SWaP considerations.
• Perform material selection and compatibility assessments for magnetic, electrical insulation, structural, bearing, adhesive, coating, lubricant, and other motor materials considering temperature, environment, corrosion, CTE mismatch, outgassing, and manufacturing processes.
• Develop detailed motor specifications, CAD models, engineering drawings, tolerance requirements, BOMs, and design documentation compliant with applicable aerospace and defense standards.
• Apply DFM/DFA principles and work closely with manufacturing, suppliers, and quality personnel to ensure designs can be repeatedly manufactured, assembled, inspected, balanced, and tested.
• Oversee prototype builds, bench testing, environmental qualification, endurance testing, failure analysis, and teardown activities; correlate test results with analytical models and drive design refinements.
• Serve as the principal technical point of contact for motor and electromechanical design reviews with customers, primes, and government stakeholders.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and provide technical leadership across motor and electromechanical design activities.
• Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, systems, controls, manufacturing, and test engineering teams to ensure integrated system performance.
• Support proposal development, technical volumes, design concepts, trade studies, and ROM estimates for new business opportunities.
• Ensure designs meet requirements for performance, reliability, EMI/EMC, environmental survivability, manufacturability, and size, weight, and power (SWaP).

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering, or related field; Master's or PhD preferred.
• 10 years of experience designing electric motors, rotating electromechanical systems, or related high-performance machinery, preferably within aerospace, defense, or another high-reliability industry.
• Demonstrated expertise in PMSM, BLDC, AC synchronous, or similar electric machine design, including magnetic circuits, winding design, motor losses, efficiency, torque production, and thermal management.
• Hands-on proficiency with ANSYS Motor-CAD and experience using ANSYS or equivalent tools for electromagnetic, thermal, structural, or mechanical analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate motor designs beyond electromagnetic performance, including thermal behavior, structural integrity, rotor dynamics, bearings, balancing, mechanical interfaces, and drivetrain considerations.
• Experience with GD&T, engineering drawings, tolerance analysis and stack-up, dimensional fits, and precision rotating assemblies.
• Experience with material selection and compatibility for high-performance electromechanical hardware.
• Experience taking designs through the full lifecycle: requirements review, specification development, concept design, detailed analysis, CAD/drawings, prototyping, test, qualification, and production transition.
• Strong understanding of motor control fundamentals and interaction between motors and drive electronics.
• Working knowledge of applicable aerospace and defense standards such as MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-704, AS9100, and related requirements.
• Strong first-principles engineering, troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, technical writing, and communication skills.
• Experience presenting technical designs and analysis to customers, internal design reviews, and government stakeholders.
• U.S. Citizenship required due to government contract requirements and access to export-controlled information.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with integrated electromechanical actuators, gearboxes, couplings, splines, and mechanical drivetrain systems.
• Experience with rotor dynamics, bearing analysis, balancing, vibration analysis, and high-speed rotating machinery.
• Familiarity with FMEA/FMECA, reliability engineering, design-for-reliability, and life prediction methods.
• Prior experience supporting DoD or NASA programs, including formal PDR/CDR activities and qualification testing.
• Active DoD security clearance.
• Experience mentoring engineers or leading small multidisciplinary technical teams.

Physical/Work Environment

• May require occasional travel to customer sites, test facilities, or supplier locations.
• Standard office, engineering lab, test, and production environment with regular interaction with prototype and production hardware.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Bascom Hunter is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.