Plume CFD Analyst

BLUE ORIGIN•Los Angeles, CA

5d•$133,500 - $203,263

About The Position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! This role is part of the Lunar Permanence business unit, which develops Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers and related products. To further Blue Origin's mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth, we are building sustainable infrastructure for our transport of crew and cargo from Earth to the lunar surface. We are looking for a Senior Fluids Systems Engineer to join the Plume Analysis team supporting the MK2 Crewed Lunar Lander. The primary focus of this role is simulation of the flow environment around the vehicle across two distinct physical regimes: rarefied gas dynamics for far-field plume environments, and fluid-particle interaction in specific situations such as plume impingement during proximity and landing operations. The engineer will work across the full analysis lifecycle — from coordinating requirements with design teams through preprocessing, simulation, post-processing, and delivery of results. You will work directly with NASA and our National Team Partners as part of the Human Landing System (HLS) program. Your analyses will directly inform thermal, structures, GNC, and EVA design decisions for a crewed lunar lander, and you will serve as a key technical interface between the Plume Analysis group and multiple internal and external customer teams.

Requirements

M.S. or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field preferred; B.S. considered with commensurate experience
5–10 years of experience in space vehicle, launch vehicle, or high-altitude flow modeling and simulation
Experience with the full CFD analysis process: 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 related concepts: 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

Nice To Haves

Experience with plume-surface interactions (PSI), fluid-particle interaction, and regolith ejecta modeling during lunar or planetary landing operations
Experience with research-grade or custom CFD solvers (Loci/CHEM, DPLR, LAURA, US3D, or equivalent)
Experience with DSMC tools (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 (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 (MMH/MON-3, LOX/LH₂, or similar)

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 full analysis pipeline: 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) analysis 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 via Boundary Condition Mapper (BCM) and formal reports
Support active NASA collaborations with ongoing technical deliverables and meeting participation
Document analyses in formal reports conforming to NASA HLS DRD standards