What to Expect

Terraform builds solar-powered machines that make the things people need. Housing is the result of the materials those machines make. We design a house once, make it in a factory, ship it and assemble it on site, and we are doing it with two systems at once.

Sections is a kit of floor, wall, ceiling, roof and window sections with the services already inside. 16 sections fill a 40ft container and bolt into a house on site.

Shell is an inflatable membrane filled in position with structural materials. The membrane is the formwork and the finished surface, the services are cast into voids inside the walls, and the cured building is lifted whole, moved and set down again within 24 hours.

Nothing in the codes was written with either system in mind. You will use the standards where they apply and prove the rest by analysis and by test. We work closely with a certifying engineer who signs the certificates. Your job is to give him engineering worth signing, and to push for the answer that makes the product better.

We are gearing up manufacturing here in Melbourne. You own the structural engineering of both systems from concept to production, you help stand the factory up, and you report to the founder.

What You'll Do

- Set the structural concept for each system and prove it: nonlinear analysis of a pressurised membrane becoming a 40 to 100 mm structural shell, and of building sections inside a 2,440 mm by 11.9 m shipping envelope.
- Design how a 30 t building is lifted, transported and set down as one piece, and how a kit of 16 sections becomes a weathertight house in a day.
- Design the tests, build the rigs, break the prototypes, and turn the results into design values where the codes supply none.
- Write the performance solutions for fire, wind, lifting and insulation that a certifier and a building surveyor accept.




- Take mass and material out with every revision: thinner shells, lighter materials, smaller sections, fewer parts, faster assembly.
- Set up the manufacturing process in Melbourne with the production team: patterns, jigs, tolerances and fill parameters, so the product is made as designed.
- Produce the design basis, calculations and drawings, and work the conformity schedule through with the certifying engineer.

What You'll Bring

- Degree in civil or structural engineering. CPEng, NER or Victorian registration in the structural area is an advantage.
- Evidence of exceptional ability: structures with no precedent that you designed and that were built, a thesis, a competition win, a patent, a company, with the numbers.
- First-principles command of shells, membranes, frames, connections and the dynamics of lifting, and the judgement to know when a hand calculation settles it.
- Nonlinear finite element analysis, including form-finding of pressurised membranes and staged construction.
- Test experience: you have broken things on purpose, instrumented them, and changed a design because of what the data said.
- Working knowledge of the AS/NZS 1170 series, AS 3850.1, the material design standards and NCC Volume Two, and a clear view of where each stops.
- Willing to travel to Mansfield during validation and to China several times a year.
- An advantage: lifting and handling of whole structures, tensile or inflatable structures, thin shells, Mandarin.

Compensation and Benefits

- Base salary set on evidence of ability, plus 12 percent superannuation.
- Design authority over two products from the first prototype, reporting directly to the founder.
- Travel, analysis software and hardware at company cost.
- Skilled membership and registration fees paid.

To apply, send a CV and one page on the hardest structure you have built to [email protected].

📌 Principal Structural Engineer (Melbourne)
🏢 Terraform Technologies
📍 Melbourne