Thermal Engineer, Thermal Protection Systems (TPS)New$171K
The opportunity
The Thermal Engineering team enables Anduril's rapid hardware development cycle by ensuring advanced defense systems perform reliably in demanding real-world environments. The team works across high-power, tightly integrated products where thermal architecture, analysis,…
What you'll do
Own TPS design, material selection, and thermal analysis for hypersonic and: high-speed flight vehicles, including missiles, reentry systems, and advanced flight platforms.
Perform aerothermal heating analysis using engineering correlations,: boundary-layer methods, and CFD to define the thermal environment across flight trajectories.
Conduct ablation and material response modeling to predict TPS recession,: in-depth thermal response, and structural thermal margins under mission-representative conditions.
Evaluate and select TPS materials, including carbon phenolic, PICA,: silicone-based ablators, ceramics, and high-temperature composites, based on aerothermal loads, mass constraints, and manufacturability.
Partner with aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and systems engineers to: integrate TPS into vehicle design while managing mass, volume, and performance tradeoffs.
Define and execute thermal and material characterization tests, including: arcjet testing, furnace testing, and instrumented flight-article thermal testing.
What they're looking for
- Build and maintain thermal models spanning hand calculations through detailed: FEA/CFD to predict system performance, establish design limits, and support qualification.
- Present TPS status, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations in internal design: reviews and customer-facing technical reviews.
- Support failure reviews and root-cause investigations using test data,: thermal analysis, and first-principles reasoning.
- MS or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics,: or a related field with a focus on aerothermodynamics, heat transfer, thermal sciences, or materials science.