Senior Aerothermal CFD Methods Engineer — On-Site, Hypersonics

Kindredventures; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 161,000 - 221,000; Full time

Job summary

Inversion seeks a Staff Aerothermal CFD Methods Engineer to build and extend computational tools for aerothermal environments around reentry vehicles. You will develop physics models, numerics, and solver capabilities beyond existing ones, with extensions to US3D, and hands-on prototyping in a fast-paced startup setting.

You will verify results against ground tests and flight data, mentor junior engineers, and collaborate with production analysts to deliver reliable, well-documented software.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a relevant field.
• 9+ years of experience developing CFD methods and solvers.
• Experience extending or modifying high-enthalpy CFD solvers.
• Experience modeling high-temperature gas dynamics and chemistry.
• Experience with multi-phase flows and droplet interactions.
• Strong fundamentals in numerical methods for compressible flow.
• Proficiency in compiled languages (Fortran, C, C++).

Responsibilities

• Build and extend the computational tools used to characterize the aerothermal environment around reentry vehicles.
• Develop, implement, and validate extensions to existing high enthalpy flow solvers.
• Model high-temperature gas dynamics and chemistry including non-equilibrium effects.
• Develop multi-phase flow modeling for droplets and atomization.
• Verify and validate new capabilities against analytical solutions and flight data.
• Collaborate with aerothermal analysts to harden tools for production use.
• Mentor engineers across the aerothermal team.

Skills

Fortran

C++

Numerical methods

Parallel computing

High-enthalpy CFD

Implicit solvers

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering

PhD preferred

Tools

US3D

MPI

Job description

Inversion seeks a Staff Aerothermal CFD Methods Engineer to build and extend computational tools for aerothermal environments around reentry vehicles. You will develop physics models, numerics, and solver capabilities beyond existing ones, with extensions to US3D, and hands-on prototyping in a fast-paced startup setting.

You will verify results against ground tests and flight data, mentor junior engineers, and collaborate with production analysts to deliver reliable, well-documented software.