Principal Aeronautical Engineer

Heaviside Industries, Inc.•Marina del Rey, CA

3d•$200,000 - $270,000•Onsite

About The Position

Heaviside Industries builds multi-domain autonomous precision munitions for U.S. and allied special operations and conventional forces. While modern warfare has rapidly evolved with the proliferation of unmanned systems, hyper-precise munitions in contested environments are the future of the battlefield. Economical precision strike capabilities are critical to U.S. and allied war efforts, enabling successful defeat of enemy military assets and infrastructure. Heaviside builds precision munitions designed to operate in GPS-denied and spectrum-jammed battlefields—where traditional systems degrade or fail—without inflated prices or sacrifice to performance. All engineering and manufacturing is conducted in-house in Heaviside's Los Angeles, CA headquarters and Oslo, Norway office. Heaviside is backed by Felicis, Hedosophia, Interlagos, Friends & Family Capital, Menlo Ventures, Flume Ventures, Cantos, and others.

Requirements

10+ years of aerodynamics or flight sciences experience on missiles, munitions, military UAS, or tactical aircraft — with hardware that flew.
Demonstrated ownership of an air vehicle's aerodynamic design from concept through flight test.
Expert proficiency in CFD (e.g., STAR-CCM+, Fluent, OpenFOAM) and low-order aero-prediction tools (e.g., Missile DATCOM, AVL), with sound judgment on when each is appropriate.
Strong foundation in flight mechanics, stability and control, and the generation of aero databases for 6-DOF weapon simulation.
Experience with wind tunnel test planning, execution, and data reduction.
Working fluency in performance analysis for small, fast, or long-endurance tactical air vehicles under real employment constraints.
U.S. Person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR §120.62)

Nice To Haves

Experience with high-subsonic/transonic munition aerodynamics or folding/tube-launched configurations.
Experience correlating CFD and flight test data through parameter identification on defense programs.

Responsibilities

Own the aerodynamic design of Heaviside's munition airframes: configuration development, airfoil and planform selection, and performance optimization across launch, cruise, and terminal flight.
Lead aerodynamic analysis from conceptual sizing through detailed design using low-order methods and CFD, anchored by wind tunnel and flight test data.
Develop and maintain vehicle performance models — range, endurance, dash speed, and terminal maneuver capability — that drive design trades and customer commitments.
Generate stability and control derivatives and aerodynamic databases for GNC design, including folding-surface deployment transients and tube-launch separation aerodynamics.
Lead propulsion-airframe integration for electric and small air-breathing propulsion, including propeller/motor performance matching.
Plan and execute aerodynamic test campaigns: wind tunnel entries, instrumented flight tests at DoD ranges, and parameter identification.
Mentor engineers across the vehicle design team and set the technical standard for analysis quality.