Senior Structural Engineer / Technical Lead

Multiphysics Simulation Group — Predictive Engineering, Global Engineering Services

Reports to: Engineering Manager, Multiphysics Simulation Group | Level: Senior Individual Contributor / Technical Lead | Location: Bengaluru, India (Global Technical Center)

We are looking for a structural simulation engineer with both depth and reach: rigorous FEA fundamentals, and the demonstrated ability to build surrogate models that turn hours of solve time into seconds of prediction.

ABOUT MOLEX & GLOBAL ENGINEERING SERVICES

Molex, a Koch Industries company, is a global electronics leader designing connectivity solutions for data center and AI infrastructure, automotive and EV platforms, medical devices, industrial automation, and aerospace and defense. With operations in more than 40 countries and a portfolio exceeding 100,000 products, Molex sits at the centre of the connected world.

The Global Engineering Services (GES) function at Molex's Global Technical Center (GTC) in Bengaluru is the simulation and predictive engineering backbone of the company. Within GES, the Predictive Engineering organization drives the transition toward Virtual Product Qualification (VPQ) — a north-star ambition in which physics-based simulation, digital twins and AI-assisted surrogate models replace prototype-heavy development cycles.

Structural simulation is where that transition is being proven. Our surrogate modelling programs — spanning mechanical integrity, drop-test prediction, and pressure-induced deformation — are actively demonstrating that field outputs can be predicted without running a full solve. This role is central to scaling that capability.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As a Senior Structural Engineer or Technical Lead, you will own structural simulation programs across Molex's product portfolio while simultaneously building the surrogate models that make structural prediction faster, cheaper and more accessible to design teams.

This is a dual-competency role, and both halves are required. You must be a rigorous structural analyst — someone who understands constitutive models, contact mechanics, and the difference between a converged solution and a correct one. And you must be able to take FEA datasets and build models that predict stress, strain, displacement and deformation fields without a full simulation.

Unlike the thermal role, surrogate modelling capability here is a core requirement, not a bonus. We are looking for someone who has already built these models — through regression methods, neural networks, or commercial platforms — and understands where they succeed, where they fail, and how to tell the difference.

ROLE AT A GLANCE

Role Title	Senior Structural Engineer / Technical Lead
Function	Global Engineering Services (GES) — Predictive Engineering
Team	Multiphysics Simulation Group
Reports to	Engineering Manager, Multiphysics Simulation Group
Location	Global Technical Center (GTC), Bengaluru
Experience	Senior Engineer: 6–10 years | Technical Lead: 10+ years
Qualification	B.E./B.Tech required; M.Tech/M.E./MS in Mechanical, Computational Mechanics or allied strongly preferred
Core Requirement	Structural FEA fundamentals AND demonstrated surrogate model development

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Structural Simulation & Analysis

• Own and execute structural FEA programs spanning quasi-static loading, impact and drop-test simulation, pressure-induced deformation, vibration, fatigue and creep.
• Model connector mechanical integrity: insertion and withdrawal force, retention, contact normal force, plating durability and mechanical cycling.
• Set up and defend nonlinear analyses — material nonlinearity, geometric nonlinearity and contact — with justified constitutive models and boundary conditions.
• Perform mesh convergence studies, sensitivity analyses and validation against analytical solutions and physical test data.
• Establish structural simulation standards, review protocols and methodology documentation for the team.

Surrogate Model Development — Core to This Role

• Build surrogate models that predict structural field and contour outputs — stress, strain, displacement, deformation — from FEA training data, substantially reducing the number of full simulations required during design iteration.
• Apply and evaluate multiple modelling approaches: polynomial and multivariable regression, response surface methods, design of experiments, neural network architectures, and Bayesian correction techniques for accuracy refinement.
• Assess surrogate model validity: quantify prediction error, define the design-space boundaries within which a model can be trusted, and communicate those limits clearly to users.
• Work with commercial surrogate and optimisation platforms (Physics AI, DEP MeshWorks, Ansys SimAI, HyperStudy, HEEDS or equivalent) and contribute to internal model-building capability that reduces long-term vendor dependency.
• Design training data strategies: determine what simulations must be run, at what sampling density, to produce a surrogate that generalises rather than memorises.
• Support digital twin development by contributing validated structural prediction models to broader multiphysics twin architectures.

Technical Leadership

• Act as the structural simulation technical authority for the Multiphysics Simulation Group — reviewing methodologies, challenging assumptions and approving deliverables.
• Mentor Engineers, Senior Engineers and PGETs; develop their structural judgement, not just their tool proficiency.
• Partner with product engineering and business unit stakeholders across Molex's five divisions to align simulation strategy with design needs.
• Communicate structural findings and surrogate model confidence levels to non-specialist audiences with clarity and honesty.
• For Technical Lead level: shape the structural simulation roadmap, evaluate emerging methods and tools, and drive capability investment recommendations.

Toward Virtual Product Qualification

• Drive reduction in physical structural testing through credible, correlated virtual qualification.
• Establish correlation frameworks that bridge surrogate predictions, full simulations and physical test data.
• Contribute to tolerance and sensitivity study methodologies that quantify design margin and manufacturing variation effects.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required — Structural Fundamentals

• Deep command of stress-strain relationships, elasticity and plasticity, constitutive models, yield criteria, failure theories and energy methods. You reason from first principles.
• Solid Mechanics: Genuine understanding of element formulation, shape functions, integration schemes, hourglassing, locking phenomena and convergence behaviour — not just solver operation.
• Finite Element Method: Practical experience with contact algorithms, friction models, large deformation and material nonlinearity, and the numerical pitfalls each introduces.
• Nonlinear & Contact Mechanics: Working knowledge of modal analysis, harmonic and transient response, explicit dynamics for impact and drop simulation.
• Dynamics: Hands-on expertise with at least one commercial FEA solver: Ansys Mechanical, Abaqus, LS-DYNA, Nastran or equivalent, including both implicit and explicit solution strategies.
• B.E./B.Tech in Mechanical, Aerospace, Civil or Computational Mechanics. M.Tech/M.E./MS strongly preferred, particularly with a research focus in solid mechanics or computational methods.
• Senior Engineer: 6–10 years of structural simulation experience. Technical Lead: 10+ years, with demonstrated technical leadership and mentorship.

Required — Surrogate Modelling Capability

• This is a distinguishing requirement for the role. Candidates must be able to demonstrate, with specific examples, surrogate models they have personally built and validated.
• Demonstrated experience building surrogate or reduced-order models from simulation datasets to predict structural responses.
• Working command of at least one modelling family: polynomial/multivariable regression, Gaussian process regression, response surface methodology, or neural network architectures.
• Practical understanding of training data design: sampling strategies (Latin hypercube, DOE), design-space definition and the trade-off between training cost and model generality.
• Ability to rigorously validate a surrogate: error quantification, cross-validation, and honest characterisation of where the model should not be trusted.
• Programming proficiency for model development and automation: Python (NumPy, scikit-learn, PyTorch/TensorFlow) or MATLAB, plus solver scripting (APDL, Python APIs, journal files).

Preferred

• Experience with commercial surrogate and AI simulation platforms: Physics AI, DEP MeshWorks, Ansys SimAI, Altair HyperStudy, Siemens HEEDS, Rescale, or Isight.
• Exposure to Bayesian methods for model correction and uncertainty quantification.
• Familiarity with Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) or physics-constrained machine learning.
• Experience with drop-test, impact or crash simulation in a high-reliability product context.
• Understanding of digital twin architectures and how surrogate models integrate into them.
• Exposure to coupled multiphysics — thermo-structural or electro-thermal-structural interaction.

WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT

Technical capability is necessary but not sufficient. At Molex, a Koch company, virtue precedes talent — and in a role that builds predictive models others will rely upon, that principle carries real weight.

• Model integrity: you will not deploy a surrogate model beyond its validated design space, and you make its limits explicit to every user.
• Intellectual honesty: a surrogate that fits the training data beautifully and generalises poorly is a failure, and you say so — even when it is your model.
• Entrepreneurial ownership: you build capabilities the roadmap has not yet asked for, because you can see they will matter.
• A multiplier mindset: your success is measured by how much stronger the structural engineers around you become.
• Rigour under pressure: schedule urgency never becomes a reason to lower validation standards.

KOCH PRINCIPLE-BASED MANAGEMENT (PBM®)

Molex operates under Koch's Principle-Based Management framework — a principled, long-term approach to value creation. For a senior technical contributor, PBM means genuine autonomy, real ownership, and advancement determined by contribution rather than tenure.

Virtue & Talents

• Character, integrity and intellectual honesty are baseline expectations. Technical brilliance without integrity creates risk, not value.

Principled Entrepreneurship

• Identify surrogate modelling opportunities that do not yet exist in the roadmap. Take initiative. Build capabilities the organization will need in three years.

Knowledge Creation

• Every simulation and every surrogate model is a chance to learn something durable. Institutionalise that knowledge and challenge established practice.

Self-Actualization

• As a senior technical contributor, your scope to grow — technically and in influence — is bounded only by the value you create.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

Molex's structural surrogate modelling programs are active and delivering. Representative work includes:

• Predicting stress, strain and deformation fields for connector assemblies under quasi-static and cyclic loading without full FEA solves.
• Surrogate and digital twin models that forecast impact response for consumer and portable device applications.
• Surrogate prediction of structural response in cold plate and pressure-vessel style applications.
• Developing in-house regression and neural network capability, with Bayesian correction, to reduce long-term dependence on external vendors.
• Combining structural surrogates with thermal, fluid and manufacturing models toward unified multiphysics digital twins.
• Structural analysis and prediction serving Transportation & Industrial, Datacom & Specialty, Medical & Pharma, Consumer & Commercial, and Aerospace & Defense product lines.

WHY THIS ROLE

A rare combination: deep structural simulation work alongside genuine AI/ML surrogate model development — most roles offer one or the other.

Your surrogate models will not sit in a research repository; they will be used by design engineers to make product decisions.

Access to leading commercial platforms alongside the mandate and budget to build internal capability.

Technical Lead progression for those who want influence without leaving the technical track.

A simulation organization that treats prediction accuracy and intellectual honesty as first-order values, not compliance checkboxes.

Molex is an equal opportunity employer. We believe diverse perspectives make us stronger.