Staff Mission Design Engineer

Rocket Lab; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 121,000 - 142,000; Full time

Job summary

Rocket Lab is seeking a Mission Performance Engineer II-III to join their innovative team focusing on creating low-cost reentry vehicles. The role involves designing performance trade studies and ensuring flight safety analysis, contributing significantly to advanced development efforts in aerospace technology.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of aerospace system performance analysis experience.
• Strong knowledge of trajectory design for space launch and reentry.
• Familiar with various aerodynamic prediction tools.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute system level performance trade studies.
• Develop workflows for flight simulation data products.
• Own customer facing performance predictions.

Skills

Trajectory design

Aerospace system performance analysis

Programming in Python

Prototyping

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

DATCOM

CBAERO

Python

MATLAB

Job description

Turning Space into a Transportation Layer for Earth

Who We Are:

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominant transportation mode - horse drawn chariots, ocean going boats, or aircraft. These were spurred by a small group of people rigorously focused on building technology to achieve faster access to more of the world. We seek to usher in a new era of humanity defined by universal access to the whole globe free of borders and the presence of a routine way from space to Earth. To do this, we are building highly maneuverable re-entry vehicles that can loiter in orbit before precision landing back on Earth.

What you'll do:

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

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent experience
• 3-5 years of aerospace system performance analysis
• Strong knowledge of 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.)
• Familiarity with 3-DOF and 6-DOF flight simulation
• Experience using programming languages like Python, MATLAB, etc. to automate workflows and accelerate data analysis.
• Familiarity with conceptual design of thermal protection systems
• Proven ability to work in a fast-paced environment, including prototyping and rapid iteration of new products.

Desired Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent experience
• End to end space mission analysis include launch, orbital operations 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 using flight simulation environments to determine impact dispersions and estimated casualty values in support of flight safety analysis.
• 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

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

_{The California annual base salary for this role is currently $121,000-$142,000. Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.}

ITAR Compliance:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Inversion provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, or disability.

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