Thermal Engineer; Spacecraft at Firefly Aerospace Cedar Park, TX

Thermal Engineer (Spacecraft) job at Firefly Aerospace. Cedar Park, TX.
About Firefly Aerospace As an end-to-end responsive space company, Firefly Aerospace is on a mission to enable our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. Our small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles allow us to service the entire lifecycle of government and commercial missions from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond.

We utilize carbon composite structures, patented propulsion technologies, and common components across our vehicles to iterate quickly, improve reliability, and deliver payloads at a lower cost.
Summary Firefly Thermal Engineers apply world-class simulation skills and expert knowledge of heat transfer to solve complex cross-discipline problems encountered during launch vehicle and spacecraft design, development, and operations. Intense thermal radiation, aero heating, cryogenics, and vacuum culminate in a complex thermal problem with a wide array of solutions. Thermal engineers will deconstruct these complex issues to ensure Firefly vehicles meet customer requirements and conform to external safety standards, while reducing margin and driving future evolution of the vehicle thermal systems.

Responsibilities

• Determines effective analytical approaches for executing vehicle-level trade studies
• Owns vehicle level spacecraft thermal models
• Creates sub-models for key thermal events to capture effects of engine & plume radiation, Lunar regolith modeling, and other phenomena
• Develops thermal control solutions involving Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI), Radiator Covers, and other TCS technologies while assessing impacts to mission cost, schedule, risk
• Coordinates thermal environments and vehicle design with customers (NASA, ESA, commercial, etc.)
• Responsible for updating and correlating models based on thermal test data
• Documents analysis and test for review by responsible engineers, peers, and customers

• B.S. degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, or related field
• Experience with Thermal Desktop
• Ability to effectively work in a multi-discipline team and provide technical reports
• Strong first principles grasp of heat transfer mechanisms
• Familiar with spacecraft thermal control methods, hardware, technologies
• Experience with industry analytical simulation tools such as Thermal Desktop, ANSYS, NASTRAN, COMSOL, SIMCENTER3D
• Working knowledge of Python, MATLAB, MS Excel
• Experience with thermal testing equipment and procedures
• Strong design and integration skills using 3D CAD software
• Demonstrated ability to address multi-tiered analytical problems and effectively communicate results

• Advanced degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering
• 5+ years of experience in thermal analysis of aircraft or space vehicles during all phases of conceptual design through flight
• Experience with ANSYS Space Claim, NX 3D Modeling, NX Space Systems Thermal
• Experience developing physical tests to correlate and validate analysis
• Experience creating MLI Layups, heater circuit design, active thermal control mechanisms, advanced spacecraft TCS technologies
• Demonstrated experience with Thermal Desktop or ANSYS
• Exposure to analysis or research planning at a program level, understanding where analysis fits into the greater development roadmap
• Familiarity with GSFC-STD-7001B, SMC-S-016, RCC-319, Spacecraft Payload requirements
• Understanding of advanced thermal-related phenomena such as combustion, diffuse thermal radiation, spectroscopy