Staff Thermal Engineer, Hypersonic Air Vehicles

The Thermal Engineering team's work is essential to support our rapid innovation cycle and maintain the performance and reliability of advanced defense technologies. Thermal Engineers own the full development life cycle from conceptual design through ground testing and flight test analysis, ensuring high-performance, resilient systems that meet the demands of complex, contested environments.

- Thermal design and analysis of unmanned air vehicles at conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design maturities

- Define thermal system architectures and material selection strategies for vehicles operating in demanding flight environments

- Thermal analysis of flight vehicles using CFD, FEA, and engineering methods

- Material response modeling under combined thermal and mechanical loads

- Transient thermal analysis for time-varying mission profiles

- Ground test planning, execution, and analysis in specialized thermal test facilities

- Flight test planning, execution, and post-flight thermal data analysis

- Use first principles and MATLAB/Python models to inform design decisions

- Collaborate with aerodynamics, structures, electrical, and systems engineers on integrated solutions

- Present thermal status at formal reviews internally and with customers

- Prepare formal documentation (specifications, test procedures, technical reports)

- MS or higher degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Applied Physics with focus on heat transfer and fluid dynamics

- In-depth understanding of heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and high-temperature environments

- 15+ years of experience in aerospace thermal engineering on rocket, aircraft, or missile programs

- Experience with thermal analysis in high-speed flight regimes

- Thermal analysis experience using CFD (STAR-CCM+, ANSYS Fluent) and/or FEA thermal solvers

- Ground testing experience with thermal instrumentation and data acquisition

- Strong programming skills in MATLAB, Python, or similar for tool development

- Ability to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

- Experience with material response modeling in extreme thermal environments

- Knowledge of material degradation and surface phenomena under demanding conditions

- Experience with specialized thermal ground test facilities

- Experience with chemical kinetics and finite-rate chemistry modeling

- Flight test experience including instrumentation design and post-flight analysis

- Experience with thermal-structural analysis codes (NASTRAN, Abaqus, ANSYS Mechanical)

- Material characterization experience at elevated temperatures

- Experience with manufacturing and assembly of thermal systems