Aerothermal Engineer II

About the Team:  

Relativity’s Integrated Performance teams ensure that our products work across all systems and disciplines from trajectory design to aerodynamics to reliability analysis and beyond. Our groups size the Terran R rocket design its missions for customer success reliability and reusability and ensure that every system on the rocket and ground is engineered correctly for the demanding environments of launch and entry. Recently we completed the preliminary design and analysis of Terran R including Relativity’s first-ever work on launch vehicle reusability spanning advanced trajectory simulations wind tunnel testing and structures analysis among many other projects.

About the Role: 

• Develop and execute computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses to solve novel challenges in vehicle entry heating and supersonic retropropulsion 
• Drive the design of major Terran R system elements – like fins flaps heat shields and primary structure – to meet criteria for temperature and heating
• Guide and mentor responsible hardware engineers to ensure hardware meets aerothermal requirements
• Scope and develop aerothermal databases for ascent and entry including uncertainty quantification from multiple sources like CFD empirical methods and wind tunnel testing
• Size thermal protection systems (TPS) for flight
• Support re-usable TPS material development and testing
• Mature Relativity’s tools for developing and communicating aerothermal data including custom and commercial code databases and data processing tools 

To be successful in this role you should be self-motivated adaptable and able to contribute significantly to a fast-paced integrated vehicle program. You should also be able to resolve ambiguity and drive projects to completion. Ideally you have significant compressible flow CFD thermal analysis and conjugate heat transfer experience as well as a proven track record completing projects successfully in a highly collaborative environment. 

On a weekly basis you will be performing analysis developing software tools and supporting design teams. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly manage the documentation and communication of your actions recommendations and decisions. 

About You:  

• Undergraduate degree in engineering or related field 
• 2+ years relevant experience
• Proficiency in compressible flow and thermal analysis preferably on entry vehicles 
• Experience executing CFD workflows for external flow preferably including engine plume simulation
• Experience solving cross-disciplinary design problems on integrated vehicles
• Proficiency in Python and industry-standard CFD tools like FUN3D and Star-CCM+ including use of HPC clusters

Nice to Haves but Not Required:  

• Graduate degree in engineering or related field
• 5+ years relevant experience across 1 or more program lifecycles 
• Experience with thermal protection system sizing & analysis using standard tools like FIAT CHAR MINIVER or LAURA
• Exposure to aerothermal instrumentation wind tunnel and flight testing

What We Do

Relativity Space is on a mission to better connect humanity to space and the universe beyond our planet. Our medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket Terran R will deliver customer payloads to orbit meeting the growing demand for launch capacity. But that’s just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock new opportunities to advance science exploration and innovation pioneering progress that reaches beyond the known.

Why Work With Us

Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy ownership and impact exist at every level. Here you're not just executing tasks; you're solving problems that haven’t been solved before helping develop a rocket a factory and a business from the ground up.

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