Aerospace Simulation Engineer

UniversalAGI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

In-person, 5 days/week in SF

Competitive salary

Job summary

UniversalAGI is seeking a founding Aerospace Simulation Engineer to build the AI-driven physics platform from day one. You will work directly with the CEO and founding team to tackle aerospace CFD challenges and craft scalable simulation pipelines.

Responsibilities span preprocessing to data generation for foundation models, with heavy emphasis on collaboration with clients and researchers in a fast-paced startup environment. This is an in-person, 5-days-a-week role in San Francisco.

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years of hands-on aerospace CFD experience including preprocessing, simulation, post-processing and design iteration.
• Strong experience with Star-CCM+ as the primary solver.
• Experience across subsonic to hypersonic flows.
• Solid background in heat transfer and CHT.
• Deep understanding of fluid mechanics, meshing, boundaries, and numerical methods.
• Excellent communication bridging customers, engineering, and research teams.
• Ability to execute with speed in a fast-paced startup.

Responsibilities

• Design, preprocess, mesh, simulate, and post-process aerospace and thermal simulations at scale.
• Systematically explore hundreds of configurations across flow regimes and build data pipelines.
• Guide product and AI model development by solving research problems with the AI team.
• Collaborate with clients to define benchmarks, validation criteria, and workflows.
• Generate high-quality simulation data to continuously improve foundation models.
• Advise on CFD nuances: compressible vs incompressible flow, turbulence, CHT, and mesh tradeoffs.
• Lead technical customer conversations bridging CFD and AI discussions.

Skills

CFD simulations

Star-CCM+

heat transfer

fluid mechanics

data pipelines

communication

Education

Master's degree in Aerospace Eng.

Tools

Star-CCM+

OpenFOAM

Python

Java

Job description

San Francisco | Work Directly with CEO & founding team | Report to CEO | OpenAI for Physics | 5 Days Onsite

Location: Onsite in San Francisco

Compensation: Competitive Salary + Equity

Who We Are

UniversalAGI is building OpenAI for Physics. AI startup based in San Francisco and backed by Elad Gil (#1 Solo VC), Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO), Prith Banerjee (ANSYS CTO), Ion Stoica (Databricks Founder), Jared Kushner (former Senior Advisor to the President), David Patterson (Turing Award Winner), and Luis Videgaray (former Foreign and Finance Minister of Mexico). We’re building foundation AI models for physics that enable end-to-end industrial automation from initial design through optimization, validation, and production.

We're building a high-velocity team of relentless researchers and engineers that will define the next generation of AI for industrial engineering. If you're passionate about AI, physics, or the future of industrial innovation, we want to hear from you.

About the Role

As a founding Aerospace Simulation Engineer, you'll be in the arena from day one, building the future of AI for physics simulation with your own hands. This is your chance to take everything you've learned across the full spectrum of the aerospace flow regime – from subsonic to hypersonic – and use it to build foundation AI models that will transform how the entire industry works.

You'll work directly with the CEO and founding team to shape our product around the real pain points you've faced in your career: the tedious preprocessing, the manual mesh iterations, the endless parameter sweeps.

What You'll Do

• Design, preprocess, mesh, simulate, and post-process aerodynamics and thermal simulations for aerospace configurations at unprecedented scale and speed

• Come up with creative ways to design, mesh, and simulate hundreds or thousands of configurations systematically across flow regimes (subsonic, transonic, supersonic, hypersonic), building the data pipelines that will train our foundation models

• Guide the development of our product and our revolutionary new AI models for physics by working directly on research problems with our AI team, bridging the gap between traditional CFD and cutting-edge ML

• Work directly with clients to solve their problems and define benchmark datasets, validation criteria, and workflows that prove our models can match or exceed traditional simulation accuracy

• Generate high-quality simulation data at scale, every simulation you run directly improves our foundation models

• Advise the AI research team on the nuances that matter: compressible vs. incompressible flow, turbulence modeling across flow regimes, conjugate heat transfer, thermal analysis, shock interactions, and mesh design tradeoffs

• Lead technical customer conversations with customers and internal teams, translating between the world of aerospace CFD and the world of AI

This is a role for someone who's ready to solve some of humanity's hardest problems, push past the limitations of traditional CFD, and build something that will define the next generation of industrial engineering.

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years of industry hands-on experience running aerospace CFD simulations, including preprocessing, simulation, post processing, and design iteration.

• Strong experience with Star-CCM+ as a primary solver

• Experience across the flow regime spectrum: subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flows.

• Solid background in heat transfer, thermal analysis/modeling, and conjugate heat transfer (CHT)

• Deep understanding of fluid mechanics, compressible and incompressible flow, meshing, boundary conditions, and numerical methods

• Strong communicator capable of bridging customers, engineering and research teams.

• Outstanding execution velocity and delivery

• Exceptional creativity, problem-solving ability, ambition, and attention to detail.

• Comfortable working in high-intensity, fast-paced startup environments with evolving priorities and tight deadlines.

Bonus Qualifications

• Master’s degree (or higher) in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related field.

• Experience with OpenFOAM.

• Proficiency in programming languages (e.g., Python, Java) for simulation automation and data pipeline development.

• Prior experience integrating AI / ML models into simulation pipelines.

• Industry experience in adjacent CFD domains (automotive, defense, energy).

• Experience at high-growth AI startups (Seed to Series C).

• Forward deployed experience.

Cultural Fit

• Technical Respect: Ability to earn respect through hands-on technical contribution

• Intensity: Thrives in our unusually intense culture - willing to grind when needed

• Customer Obsession: Passionate about solving real customer problems, not just cool tech

• Deep Work: Values long, uninterrupted periods of focused work over meetings

• High Availability: Ready to be deeply involved whenever critical issues arise

• Communication: Can translate complex technical concepts to customers and team

• Growth Mindset: Embraces the compounding returns of intelligence and continuous learning

• Startup Mindset: Comfortable with ambiguity, rapid change, and wearing multiple hats

• Work Ethic: Willing to put in the extra hours when needed to hit critical milestones

• Team Player: Collaborative approach with low ego and high accountability

What We Offer

• Opportunity to shape the technical foundation of a rapidly growing foundational AI company.

• Work on cutting-edge industrial AI problems with immediate real-world impact.

• Direct collaboration with the founder & CEO and ability to influence company strategy

• Competitive compensation with significant equity upside.

• In-person first culture - 5 days a week in office with a team that values face-to-face collaboration.

• Access to world-class investors and advisors in the AI space.

Benefits

We provide great benefits, including:

• Competitive compensation and equity.

• Competitive health, dental, vision benefits paid by the company.

• 401(k) plan offering.

• Flexible vacation.

• Team Building & Fun Activities.

• Great scope, ownership and impact.

• AI tools stipend.

• Monthly commute stipend.

• Monthly wellness / fitness stipend.

• Daily office lunch & dinner covered by the company.

• Immigration support.

How We’re Different

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again... who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly." - Teddy Roosevelt

At our core, we believe in being “in the arena.” We are builders, problem solvers, and risk-takers who show up every day ready to put in the work: to sweat, to struggle, and to push past our limits. We know that real progress comes with missteps, iteration, and resilience. We embrace that journey fully knowing that daring greatly is the only way to create something truly meaningful.

If you're ready to join the future of physics simulation, push creative boundaries, and deliver impact, UniversalAGI is the place for you.