CFD Engineer

Tiberius Aerospace Inc.•Tucson, AZ

2d•$100,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Tiberius Aerospace is seeking a CFD Engineer to support aerodynamic and propulsion analysis for their advanced air vehicle and munition programs. This role is hands-on with the simulation stack, involving meshing, solving, and post-processing high-fidelity CFD for internal flows (inlets, combustors, nozzles) and external aerodynamics across subsonic through high-supersonic regimes. The engineer will collaborate closely with aerodynamics and propulsion engineers to translate design questions into well-posed CFD studies and CFD results into actionable design guidance. This position offers deep, hands-on computational experience on real flight hardware programs.

Requirements

B.S. or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
2 to 5 years of CFD experience, which may include relevant graduate research, internships, or industry experience on air vehicle, propulsion, or munition programs.
Hands-on experience with at least one major CFD solver (e.g., commercial codes such as Fluent or STAR-CCM+, or DoD/academic codes such as FUN3D, Kestrel, or CFD++).
Working knowledge of meshing tools and mesh generation strategies for internal and external aerodynamic flow domains.
Understanding of compressible aerodynamics and propulsion flow physics across subsonic through high-supersonic regimes.
Proficiency in CFD post-processing, data reduction, and automation.
Must be a U.S. citizen and eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Experience with internal flow CFD for inlets, combustors, or nozzles on air-breathing propulsion systems.
Experience with reacting-flow or combustion CFD modeling.
Familiarity with transient high-fidelity methods such as DES, DDES, or LES for operability and distortion analysis.
Experience running CFD on commercial or DoD HPC platforms, including job scheduling and parallel scaling.
Background correlating CFD predictions against wind tunnel, ground test, and flight test data.
Experience with high-dynamic, high-g, or gun-launched flight environments.
Active or clearable to obtain a U.S. government security clearance.

Responsibilities

Set up, solve, and post-process high-fidelity CFD simulations for internal flows including inlets, combustors, and nozzles, and external aerodynamic flows across the flight envelope.
Support inlet and nozzle flow path design studies using high-fidelity RANS or transient CFD as appropriate to the design phase.
Generate aerodynamic and propulsion databases from CFD results for use in vehicle performance modeling and trajectory simulation.
Develop and execute large-scale parametric CFD studies on commercial or government high-performance computing platforms.
Support combustor and reacting-flow analysis workflows including fuel injection, atomization, and combustion process modeling as applicable to the propulsion architecture.
Correlate CFD predictions against wind tunnel, direct-connect, or flight test data and help refine simulation setup based on observed discrepancies.
Document CFD methodology, mesh and solver settings, and validation basis for each major analysis campaign.
Collaborate with the Aero-Propulsion and Flight Dynamics & Controls teams to ensure CFD-derived data products meet the fidelity and format requirements of downstream simulation users.
Develop and refine computational meshes for internal and external flow domains, balancing mesh resolution against turnaround time requirements for each phase of design.
Configure and run RANS and, where required, transient high-fidelity CFD simulations (such as DES or DDES) for inlet and combustor performance, nozzle flow, and external aerodynamic characterization.
Apply viscous-coupled panel methods or method-of-characteristics tools for rapid conceptual-level aerodynamic design studies ahead of higher-fidelity CFD confirmation.
Post-process CFD results to extract performance metrics such as pressure recovery, distortion, thrust and drag bookkeeping, and aerodynamic coefficients, and package results into formats usable by the performance modeling and trajectory simulation teams.
Support reacting-flow CFD setup for combustor analysis, including fuel injection and atomization modeling, working under the direction of propulsion engineers.
Manage CFD job submission, monitoring, and data management on HPC platforms, troubleshooting convergence issues and solver stability problems as they arise.
Support correlation studies comparing CFD predictions to wind tunnel, ground test, and flight test data, helping identify and document sources of discrepancy.
Maintain CFD case documentation including mesh generation procedures, boundary condition definitions, solver settings, and convergence criteria for reproducibility and audit.
Coordinate with Aero-Propulsion team members on CFD study scope, priority, and turnaround requirements relative to program design milestones.
Provide aerodynamic and propulsion data products to the Flight Dynamics & Controls team for trajectory simulation and stability analysis use.
Support test planning activities by providing pre-test CFD predictions used to define wind tunnel or ground test points and success criteria.
Participate in design reviews and provide CFD-based technical support for aerodynamic and propulsion design decisions.
Coordinate with IT or computing infrastructure support on HPC account access, software licensing, and computational resource allocation.
Support documentation of CFD methodology and results for program milestone review packages.