Parachute Modeling Engineer

MRI Technologies•Houston, TX

9d•Remote

About The Position

MRI Technologies has an exciting opportunity for a Parachute Modeling Engineer on the JETS II contract at NASA Johnson Space Center. In this role, you will develop and maintain state-of-the-art multi-body parachute system models and integrate them into NASA's flight mechanics simulations in support of the Orion and Artemis Programs, working alongside NASA civil servants, the GN&C team, and parachute analysis subject matter experts to deliver high-fidelity simulation tools for crewed spacecraft recovery systems. This role has the potential to be fully remote for the right candidate, which is rare for this contract as it typically requires in person onsite work at Johnson Space Center. A typical day involves developing and validating parachute deployment, inflation, and full-open flight models and integrating them into NASA's Julia-based flight mechanics simulation or NASA Trick-based simulations written in C++. In the morning you may be collaborating with parachute analysis experts to reconstruct drop test data or assess parachute system performance from spacecraft flights. In the afternoon you could be running simulations on the High-Performance Computing (HPC) system to support landing touchdown condition analyses, writing requirements documentation, or presenting verification and validation results to the team in a technical review. The work is analytically demanding, safety-critical, and directly tied to enabling safe crew recovery for every Orion and future commercial crew mission.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering from an accredited institution.
Minimum of 2–5 years of experience in the field or a related area.
Experience with 6-DOF and multi-body flight mechanics simulations.
Experience with software development in any programming language.
Experience developing, verifying, and validating parachute or other flight mechanics simulation models.
Experience analyzing spacecraft performance.
Experience with source code management tools such as Git or GitLab.
Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to coordinate across multiple technical disciplines.
Ability to work in a team environment consisting of NASA civil servants and contractor employees.
Ability to organize and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines and schedules with limited supervision.
Ability to prepare written documents and present findings at technical meetings and reviews.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office products.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree from an ABET-accredited engineering school with five (5) years of related engineering experience, a master's degree with four (4) years of related experience, or a Ph.D. with zero (0) years of related experience.
Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on flight mechanics.
Proficiency in Julia, C++, and Linux.
Experience with software design for simulation frameworks.
Proven experience reconstructing parachute drop tests or spacecraft flight performance from telemetry data.
Experience executing simulations on High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems.
Familiarity with NASA JSC organizations, processes, and procedures, including the Orion or Commercial Crew programs.
Experience participating in design reviews, technical interchange meetings, or anomaly investigations.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate across GN&C, structures, and parachute analysis disciplines.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain state-of-the-art multi-body parachute system models.
Integrate parachute system models into NASA's flight mechanics simulations.
Develop and validate parachute deployment, inflation, and full-open flight models.
Integrate models into NASA's Julia-based flight mechanics simulation or NASA Trick-based simulations written in C++.
Collaborate with parachute analysis experts to reconstruct drop test data or assess parachute system performance from spacecraft flights.
Run simulations on the High-Performance Computing (HPC) system to support landing touchdown condition analyses.
Write requirements documentation.
Present verification and validation results to the team in a technical review.