Senior Aerothermal Analysis Engineer Seen this week

About the Role

As Senior Aerothermal Analysis Engineer, you will lead the prediction and management of aerodynamic heating environments on the external surfaces of Cowboy Space's new launch vehicle. You will characterize the aerothermal conditions experienced during ascent and re-entry, and define the boundary conditions for the vehicle's external structures and thermal protection system (TPS).

Responsibilities

• Generate high-fidelity aerodynamic pressure and heating environments for nominal and off-nominal ascent and re-entry trajectories using engineering tools and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes.
• Set up, execute, and post-process viscous, reacting-flow CFD simulations to characterize surface heating rates, pressure distributions, and boundary layer transition.
• Work with TPS and structures engineers to translate aeroheating predictions into material selection, sizing, and margin assessments.
• Develop, maintain, and version-control the aeroheating database used across vehicle design cycles; define uncertainty bands and apply design factors.
• Define ground-test requirements for arc-jet, wind-tunnel, and flight instrumentation; correlate analytical predictions to test data and update models.
• Coordinate with aerodynamics, structures, thermodynamics, propulsion, and systems engineering teams to ensure aeroheating constraints are captured in vehicle requirements and design.
• Author technical reports, design review packages, and analysis notes communicating aerothermal results, assumptions, and uncertainties to internal and external stakeholders.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.
• 3 or more years of experience in aeroheating analysis for launch vehicles, re-entry vehicles, or hypersonic systems.
• Proficiency with engineering-level aeroheating tools (e.g., MINIVER, UNLATCH, or equivalent).
• Experience with viscous CFD solvers for high-speed, high-temperature flows (e.g., DPLR, LAURA, US3D, or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of hypersonic aerodynamics, boundary layer physics, and convective and radiative heat transfer.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain aeroheating databases with defined uncertainties and design margins.
• Experience supporting design reviews and authoring technical documentation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related discipline.
• 5 or more years of experience performing aeroheating analyses for launch vehicles, re-entry vehicles, or hypersonic platforms, including flight-certified programs.
• Hands-on experience with arc-jet or high-enthalpy wind-tunnel testing and test-to-analysis correlation.
• Familiarity with radiative heat transfer in high-temperature shock layers and ablative TPS response modeling (e.g., FIAT, CHAR).
• Experience with Python or MATLAB scripting for automated post-processing of CFD and aeroheating databases.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to drive design decisions under uncertainty across multi-disciplinary teams.

Location

Seattle, WA or San Carlos, CA.