Principal Turbo Hydrodynamicist

About Cowboy Space Corp:

Mission

Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world‑class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth.

Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on‑orbit high‑performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.
Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on‑demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In‑Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.
Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father’s work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co‑founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.
This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation’s team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA, and is based in San Carlos, CA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.

This is a high ownership role on a fast moving team! You will own the hydrodynamic design of the rocket engine's turbopumps: driving the engine- and vehicle-level design trades, predicting head, flow, efficiency, and suction margin across the operating box, following the hardware from concept through build, and proving its performance on the test stand. This includes inducers, impellers, diffusers and volutes, inlet and discharge flowpaths, the internal leakage and cavity flow network, and the axial thrust balance.

• Own pump primary and secondary flowpath hydrodynamic design from concept through qualification.

• Drive hydrodynamic design for maximum efficiency and suction performance while meeting head-rise, axial thrust, and rotordynamic requirements.

• Ensure hardware meets performance across the full operating box—start transients, deep throttle, off-nominal inlet NPSH, and repeated cycles.

• Lead hydrodynamic analysis (meanline/through flow, single- and multiphase CFD) and validate against powerpack and engine test data.

• Define and execute pump test campaigns.

• Work directly with manufacturing to iterate quickly and resolve fabrication and assembly issues.

• Support hot-fire operations, anomaly investigation, and post-test hardware inspection and design iteration improvement cycles.

• Develop tools and best practices for the rest of the organization.

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, or related engineering field.

• 12+ years of experience in turbo machinery hydrodynamic or aerodynamic design and analysis for flight hardware or…