Engineer - Fluid Systems Analyst

BLUE ORIGIN•Huntsville, AL

7d•$121,023 - $169,432

About The Position

Blue Origin is seeking a Fluids Systems Analyst for the Plume Analysis team supporting the Lunar Transfer Stage vehicle in its Lunar Permanence business unit. The role focuses on simulating flow environments around the vehicle in rarefied gas-dynamics and fluid-particle interaction regimes, including far-field plume environments and plume impingement during proximity and landing operations. The engineer will work through the complete analysis lifecycle, from coordinating requirements with design teams through preprocessing, simulation, post-processing, and delivery of results. The position supports Blue Origin’s Human Landing System program and involves direct work with NASA and National Team Partners. Analyses inform thermal, structures, GNC, and EVA design decisions for a crewed lunar lander. The engineer also serves as a technical interface between the Plume Analysis group and internal and external customer teams.

Requirements

5–7 years of experience in space vehicle, launch vehicle, or high-altitude flow modeling and simulation.
Experience with the full CFD analysis process, including geometry preparation, meshing, solver execution, and post-processing.
Understanding of compressible fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and thermodynamics in rocket propulsion and vacuum plume expansion environments.
Experience with rarefied flow modeling and fundamental understanding of Knudsen number, continuum breakdown, DSMC or DSMC-adjacent methods, mean free path, and transition-regime flow.
Proficiency with Python for scientific computing and post-processing.
U.S. citizenship or nationality, U.S. permanent residency, or lawful admission into the U.S. as a refugee or grant of asylum.

Nice To Haves

M.S. or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field; a B.S. is considered with commensurate experience.
Experience with research-grade or custom CFD solvers such as Loci/CHEM, DPLR, LAURA, US3D, or equivalent.
Experience with DSMC tools such as DAC, SPARTA, or equivalent.
Experience with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for acoustic environments, turbulent mixing, or other high-fidelity flow details.
Experience with CAD defeaturing and surface/volume meshing tools such as SpaceClaim, ANSA, Pointwise, or equivalent.
Experience submitting and managing large-scale jobs on HPC or cloud platforms.
Experience delivering analysis products to NASA programs under DRD or equivalent documentation requirements.
Familiarity with spacecraft propellant thermochemistry, such as MMH/MON-3 or LOX/LH₂.
Experience with plume-surface interactions (PSI), fluid-particle interaction, and regolith ejecta modeling during lunar or planetary landing operations.

Responsibilities

Coordinate with thermal, structures, GNC, EVA, and propulsion design teams to understand analysis requirements and translate them into simulation tasks.
Develop analysis approaches for plume flowfield characterization, surface impingement heat flux, and pressure loads across continuum and rarefied flow regimes.
Execute the analysis pipeline, including CAD preparation and defeaturing, mesh generation, CFD/DSMC simulation, post-processing, and results delivery.
Perform 2D axisymmetric and 3D CFD simulations of rocket nozzle and plume flowfields using research-grade solvers on HPC and cloud infrastructure.
Perform rarefied gas-dynamics (DSMC) analyses for far-field plume environments and surface impingement heating.
Develop Python-based post-processing and analysis pipelines for heat flux, pressure, contamination transport, and ejecta distributions.
Deliver surface heat flux and pressure boundary conditions to design teams using Boundary Condition Mapper (BCM) and formal reports.
Support active NASA collaborations through technical deliverables and meeting participation.
Document analyses in formal reports conforming to NASA HLS DRD standards.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Basic and supplemental life insurance.
Paid parental leave.
Short- and long-term disability.
401(k) with company match of up to 5%.
Education Support Program.
Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week.
Paid time off of up to four weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours.
Up to 14 company-paid holidays.
Depending on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on individual contributions, company results, or other factors.