Thermal Protection System Instrumentation Engineer

Position Overview

Analytical Mechanics Associates (AMA) is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Thermal Protection System (TPS) Instrumentation Engineer to support NASA under the Aircraft Systems and Spaceflight Engineering Support Services (ASSESS) contract at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in Moffett Field, California. The selected candidate will work full‑time on‑site within the Thermal Protection Materials (TSM) Branch, part of the Entry Systems and Technology Division at NASA ARC.

The Thermal Protection Materials Branch develops and evaluates materials, instrumentation, and predictive capabilities for atmospheric entry, descent, and landing applications. This position will support the development, qualification, test, and application of instrumentation used to characterize TPS materials and flight systems in extreme aerothermal environments. The successful candidate will contribute to the design, analysis, fabrication, calibration, testing, and data interpretation of TPS instrumentation and TPS test articles.

The work may support ground testing in arc‑jet and laboratory facilities, technology maturation, flight‑instrumentation development, and analysis of data from relevant thermal‑protection‑system test and flight environments. This is an opportunity for an experienced engineer or technical specialist (U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents only) to work closely with a multidisciplinary team of materials scientists, experimentalists, instrumentation engineers, computational modelers, technicians, contractors, and NASA researchers.

NASA entry systems rely on thermal protection systems to protect spacecraft and scientific payloads from severe heating during atmospheric entry. Instrumentation embedded within or integrated with TPS materials provides critical measurements of heat flux, temperature, pressure, recession, optical response, and other physical quantities needed to understand TPS performance and improve future entry‑system designs. The TPS Instrumentation Engineer will support the development and application of instrumentation for ground testing and flight systems.

Work may include the development of sensor concepts; mechanical, thermal, and electrical design; fabrication and assembly of instrumented TPS test articles; calibration and environmental testing; test planning; arc‑jet test execution; data acquisition; data processing; and technical reporting. Assignments may support a range of current and future NASA planetary‑entry, Earth‑return, lunar‑return, and other high‑speed atmospheric‑entry applications. The role may also support investigations of TPS performance, material qualification activities, and instrumentation technology development.

• Location:
  
  NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
• Work arrangement:
  Full‑time, on‑site attendance required
• Travel:
  Occasional travel may be required
• Compensation: $150,000 – $220,000, commensurate with education level
• Eligibility:
  This position requires U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Residency due to export control requirements.

• Design, analyze, develop, fabricate, assemble, test, and document TPS instrumentation and instrumented material test articles for ground and flight applications.
• Develop and apply sensors for measurement of relevant TPS and aerothermal quantities, such as heat flux, temperature, pressure, optical response, material recession, and related thermal or physical phenomena.
• Support the design and maturation of instrumentation systems for thermal protection materials, entry vehicles, planetary probes, and other spacecraft operating in high‑temperature aerothermal environments.
• Develop mechanical, thermal, electrical, and data‑acquisition approaches for TPS instrumentation, including sensor integration into ablative, insulating, or structural thermal‑protection materials.
• Prepare engineering analyses, drawings, test plans, work instructions, calibration procedures, instrumentation layouts, and technical documentation.
• Plan and prepare arc‑jet, plasma, environmental, calibration, and laboratory test activities for TPS sensors, materials, and instrumented test articles.
• Serv…