Staff Mission Design Engineer

Inversion • Los Angeles, CA

9d • $161,000 - $221,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Inversion’s lifting-body reentry platform will create a highly maneuverable, highly accurate, and low-cost vehicle that will be industry-first. The Staff Mission Design Engineer will be responsible for developing a workflow to support the flight simulation data products required for flight safety analysis. This role will also aid in designing and executing system-level performance trade studies to drive key architecture decisions for current and conceptual reentry vehicles. You will own customer-facing performance predictions and safety analysis and be a key contributor to Inversion's advanced development efforts.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent experience
• Typically 9+ years of aerospace system performance analysis
• Strong knowledge of 3-DOF and 6-DOF flight simulation
• Experience using flight simulation environments to determine impact dispersions and estimated casualty values in support of flight safety analysis.
• Familiarity with debris catalog generation
• Familiarity with trajectory design for space launch, reentry, or hypersonic systems
• Familiarity with handbook and medium fidelity aerodynamic prediction tools (e.g,. DATCOM, CBAERO, Cart3D, etc.)
• Familiarity with trajectory optimization tools (POST, OTIS, QuickShot, etc.)
• Experience using programming languages like Python, MATLAB, etc. to automate workflows and accelerate data analysis.
• Proven ability to work in a fast-paced environment, including prototyping and rapid iteration of new products.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent experience
• End-to-end space mission analysis includes launch, orbital operation, and reentry
• Strong knowledge of low / mid / high fidelity estimation of aerodynamics of hypersonic vehicles.
• Significant experience with trajectory optimization tools, including their modification and the creation of custom toolchains around them to accelerate workflows.
• Experience driving space system architectures using trajectory optimization software tools
• Space constellation design experience, including familiarity with STK (Systems Tool Kit) for space mission design and ground coverage assessments

Responsibilities

• developing a workflow to support the flight simulation data products required for flight safety analysis
• designing and executing system-level performance trade studies to drive key architecture decisions for current and conceptual reentry vehicles
• owning customer-facing performance predictions and safety analysis
• key contributor to Inversion's advanced development efforts

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees