Molecular Dynamics and Aerospace Engineer

Booz Allen Hamilton•Houston, TX

7d•Remote

About The Position

You will support the client by tackling the challenges of contamination of spacecraft and other assets by modeling the complex interactions between dust particles, the space environment, and spacecraft. To do so, they develop and use advanced computational modeling tools and techniques. As a molecular dynamics and granular mechanics simulation engineer on the Team, you will be responsible for developing particle-scale physics models that resolve contact mechanics, cohesion, and fragmentation across regolith and contaminant populations. This work centers on building MD or DEM frameworks capable of capturing wheel-regolith interactions. As a senior engineer, you will architect and implement computational approaches, guide strategy, and mentor junior staff.

Requirements

6+ years of experience of modeling and simulation of physical phenomena, systems using molecular dynamics (MD), or discrete element method (DEM).
Experience developing MD or DEM simulation frameworks.
Experience developing and maintaining software to implement analytical and computational models.
Experience programming in Python or C++.
Experience in data processing and statistical techniques.
Experience with MD or DEM tools, such as LAMMPS, GROMACS, NAMD, or Ansys Rocky.
Experience writing technical documentation or scientific publications.
Ability to work in both a team and independent environment and take ownership of assigned tasks.
Ability to obtain a Secret clearance.
Master’s degree in a Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Applied Mathematics, Computational Physics, Computational Chemistry, Materials Science, or Biophysics field.

Nice To Haves

Experience modeling plasma or dust-plasma coupling.
Experience coupling MD or DEM solvers to Eulerian computational fluid dynamics solvers.
Experience applying machine learning (ML) to solve engineering problems with modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch or Tensorflow.
Experience developing simulations using NVIDIA Warp or CUDA Python.
Experience working with Linux environments.
Experience producing original research and working with U.S. Government clients.
Experience of applications to granular mechanics.
Possession of strong verbal and written communication skills.
Secret clearance.
Doctorate degree in Engineering or related field.

Responsibilities

Develop particle-scale physics models that resolve contact mechanics, cohesion, and fragmentation across regolith and contaminant populations.
Build MD or DEM frameworks capable of capturing wheel-regolith interactions.
Architect and implement computational approaches.
Guide strategy.
Mentor junior staff.