Ablation TPS Engineer for Hypersonics

Anduril Industries; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 129,000 - 171,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in the United States seeks a Thermal Engineer specializing in Thermal Protection Systems for hypersonic/high-speed flight. You will own TPS design, analysis, and validation, selecting materials to survive extreme aerothermal environments and guiding design decisions.

Work spans hand calculations to CFD, with cross-functional collaboration across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and systems.

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field.
• 2+ years of TPS design or aerothermal analysis experience.
• Strong first-principles understanding of aerodynamic heating and material response.
• Experience with FIAT, CMA, TITAN or equivalent ablation/thermal codes.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own TPS design, material selection, and thermal analysis for hypersonic/high-speed vehicles.
• Perform aerothermal heating analysis using correlations, boundary-layer methods, and CFD.
• Conduct ablation and material response modeling to predict TPS recession and margins.
• Evaluate TPS materials (carbon phenolic, PICA, ceramics, etc.) for loads and manufacturability.
• Collaborate with aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and systems engineers on integration.
• Define and execute thermal/material characterization tests (arcjet, furnace, flight tests).
• Build thermal models from hand calculations to detailed FEA/CFD to predict performance.
• Present TPS status and tradeoffs in design reviews and customer reviews.
• Support failure reviews and root-cause analysis with test data and first-principles reasoning.

Skills

TPS design

Aerothermal analysis

Material response modeling

First-principles

Clearance: Top Secret

Education

Master's or PhD in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics

Tools

FIAT

CMA

TITAN

DPLR

US3D

Loci-CHEM

CFD++

ANSYS Fluent

STAR-CCM+

MATLAB / Python

Job description

Anduril Industries in the United States seeks a Thermal Engineer specializing in Thermal Protection Systems for hypersonic/high-speed flight. You will own TPS design, analysis, and validation, selecting materials to survive extreme aerothermal environments and guiding design decisions.

Work spans hand calculations to CFD, with cross-functional collaboration across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and systems.