Senior Aerospace Fluids Analyst: Plume & DSMC

Blue Origin; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 121,000 - 169,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Stock options

Job summary

Blue Origin is seeking a Fluids Systems Analyst to support the Plume Analysis team for the Lunar Transfer Stage. The role focuses on simulating plume environments across rarefied and continuum regimes, coordinating with design teams, and delivering results to NASA and partners.

You will handle CAD/meshing, CFD/DSMC simulations, and post-processing, providing boundary conditions and reports per DRD standards for the lunar lander program.

Qualifications

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field preferred; B.S. considered with commensurate experience
• 5–7 years of experience in space vehicle, launch vehicle, or high-altitude flow modeling and simulation
• Experience with the full CFD analysis process: geometry preparation, meshing, solver execution, and post-processing
• Understanding of compressible fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and thermodynamics in rocket propulsion and vacuum plume expansion environments
• Experience with rarefied flow modeling and DSMC or DSMC-adjacent methods
• Proficiency with Python for scientific computing and post-processing

Responsibilities

• Coordinate with thermal, structures, GNC, EVA, and propulsion design teams to understand analysis requirements and translate them into simulation tasks
• Develop analysis approaches for plume flowfield characterization, surface impingement heat flux, and pressure loads across continuum and rarefied flow regimes
• Execute the full analysis pipeline: CAD preparation and defeaturing, mesh generation, CFD/DSMC simulation, post-processing, and results delivery
• Perform 2D axisymmetric and 3D CFD simulations of rocket nozzle and plume flowfields using research-grade solvers on HPC and cloud infrastructure
• Perform rarefied gas dynamics (DSMC) analysis for far-field plume environments and surface impingement heating
• Develop Python-based post-processing and analysis pipelines for heat flux, pressure, contamination transport, and ejecta distributions
• Deliver surface heat flux and pressure boundary conditions to design teams via Boundary Condition Mapper (BCM) and formal reports
• Support active NASA collaborations with ongoing technical deliverables and meeting participation
• Document analyses in formal reports conforming to NASA HLS DRD standards

Skills

Python for scientific computing

Fluid mechanics

Heat transfer

Thermodynamics in rocket propulsion

CFD/DSMC analysis

HPC/Cloud computing

Plume analysis experience

Education

M.S. or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Loci/CHEM

DPLR

LAURA

US3D

DAC

SPARTA

SpaceClaim

ANSA

Pointwise

Job description

Blue Origin is seeking a Fluids Systems Analyst to support the Plume Analysis team for the Lunar Transfer Stage. The role focuses on simulating plume environments across rarefied and continuum regimes, coordinating with design teams, and delivering results to NASA and partners.

You will handle CAD/meshing, CFD/DSMC simulations, and post-processing, providing boundary conditions and reports per DRD standards for the lunar lander program.