Thermal Protection Systems Engineer - Hypersonics

AI Chopping Block; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 186,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive benefits

Job summary

Anduril Industries is seeking a Thermal Engineer specializing in Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) to join our Thermal Engineering team. You will own the design, analysis, and validation of TPS for hypersonic and high-speed flight systems.

This role requires deep expertise in aerothermal heating, ablation, and high-temperature analysis, spanning from hand calculations to CFD and material response modeling. Collaborate with aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and systems engineers to integrate

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering or related field with aerothermodynamics focus.
• 2+ years TPS design or aerothermal analysis experience.
• Strong first-principles understanding of aerodynamic heating and material response.
• Experience with ablation/thermal response modeling tools (FIAT, CMA, TITAN).
• Experience with hypersonic thermal design in extreme aerothermal environments.

Responsibilities

• Own TPS design, material selection, and thermal analysis for hypersonic and high-speed flight 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 including carbon phenolic, PICA, ceramics, and high-temp composites.
• Collaborate with aerodynamics, structures, propulsion to integrate TPS while managing mass/volume.
• Define and execute thermal/material tests (arcjet, furnace, flight-article testing).
• Build thermal models from hand calculations to FEA/CFD to predict performance.
• Present TPS status and recommendations in design reviews and customer reviews.
• Support failure reviews using data and first-principles reasoning.

Skills

Aerospace Engineering

Thermal Analysis

Material Modeling

First Principles

MATLAB

Python

Education

MS in Aerospace Engineering

PhD in related field

Tools

FIAT

CMA

TITAN

DPLR

US3D

Loci-CHEM

CFD++

ANSYS Fluent

STAR-CCM+

Job description

Anduril Industries is seeking a Thermal Engineer specializing in Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) to join our Thermal Engineering team. You will own the design, analysis, and validation of TPS for hypersonic and high-speed flight systems.

This role requires deep expertise in aerothermal heating, ablation, and high-temperature analysis, spanning from hand calculations to CFD and material response modeling. Collaborate with aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and systems engineers to integrate