Senior Aerospace Engineer - Contractor
About The Position
At SpaceWorks Enterprises, we specialize in next-generation high-speed flight systems, human and robotic spacecraft, as well as entry, descent & landing technologies. Our core competencies include conducting preliminary design of aerospace concepts, performing detailed multidisciplinary engineering analysis, developing commercial aerospace software, prototyping spacecraft hardware components, and conducting market and economic research within the aerospace industry. We serve clients across the Department of Defense, NASA, and the commercial space sector. SpaceWorks is seeking senior aerospace engineers with a focus on designing and developing next-generation hypersonic flight vehicles, Earth-to-orbit launch systems, human and robotic spacecraft, and space re-entry vehicles. Seeking domain expertise in - Flight Performance and Trajectory Optimization Aerodynamic Design & Analysis Aerothermal Modeling A successful candidate will: Be well versed in hypersonic aircraft and/or spacecraft performance Support a small multidisciplinary team of technical staff to design complex systems Exhibit a "can do" and "want to" attitude - bringing an open-minded approach and a bias toward finding solutions Have experience supporting activities in modeling, simulation, and design of high-speed flight systems including endo-atmospheric, re-entry, and launch systems
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering
- 5+ years of related aerospace industry experience contributing technically as a flight performance, aerodynamics, or aerothermal engineer primarily withi n concept development, requirements definition, preliminary design, and detailed design.
- Relevant work or project e xperience in the design/modeling of hypersonic atmospheric vehicles, Earth-to-orbit launch systems, or human & robotic spacecraft
- High level disciplinary experience with multidisciplinary analysis and optimization of high-speed flight and/or launch vehicle design
- Experience in relevant aerospace-oriented, flight development programs (e.g. UAVs, missiles, CubeSats)
- Basic knowledge of Monte Carlo analysis, uncertainty analysis, or risk analysis
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, multidisciplinary, collaborative environment with ownership and autonomy typical of a small business
- Small business experience
- Must be a U.S. citizen
Responsibilities
- Flight Performance and Trajectory Optimization: Perform trajectory design and optimization using state-of-the-art 3-DOF trajectory software.
- Conduct flight performance assessments (ΔV budgets, mass margins, staging trade-offs) to ensure mission objectives are met.
- Use trajectory optimization tools and methods to balance mission performance, safety, and system constraints.
- Perform multidisciplinary design optimization of aerospace systems.
- Develop and analyze mission trajectories, including ascent, orbital operations, re-entry, and landing phases.
- Aerodynamic Design & Analysis: Develop and optimize aerodynamic designs from concept development and requirements definition, through preliminary and detailed design.
- Conduct detailed analysis to predict and enhance aerodynamic performance.
- Utilize Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools along with lower-order methods for performance evaluation.
- Evaluate impacts of configuration changes on performance of the vehicle.
- Aerothermal Modeling: Predict convective and radiative heating environments during ascent, atmospheric flight, and re-entry using CFD and engineering models.
- Assess coupled aero-thermal-structural interactions and recommend design solutions for survivability and reliability.
- Contribute to thermal environment definition for subsystem qualification and testing requirements.
