Mechanical Engineer II; Propulsion Valves

Career Opportunities with Firefly Aerospace

Firefly is an end‑to‑end responsive space transportation company on a mission to enable launching, landing, and operating in space anywhere, anytime. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

Firefly’s fluid components team designs, builds, tests, and qualifies high‑performance, precision fluid components for the Alpha launch vehicle, Eclipse launch vehicle, Blue Ghost lunar landers, and Elytra spacecraft. Team engineers own their products through the entire lifecycle, from conception to qualification and handoff to production.

• Demonstrate extreme ownership of hardware
• Conceptualize, design, develop and deliver propulsion components to high‑performance systems
• Responsible for entire development lifecycle and production support as the technical expert.
• Own a combination of Firefly developed and commercial‑off‑the‑shelf (COTS) valves, regulators and actuators
• Prepare content for and lead CoDRs, MRR, PDRs, TRRs, data reviews and CDRs
• Author and execute qualification, and acceptance test plans with hands‑on hardware problem solving
• Work to standardize solutions across programs and product lines
• Improve mission cadence by identifying and implementing cost‑saving and risk‑reduction measures
• Lead cross‑functional teams of analysts, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, supply chain representatives, and test engineers to deliver tested hardware on time
• Resolve non‑conformances and implement design changes to improve product yield and manufacturability
• Work with the program teams to develop hardware upgrades in alignment with ambitious performance and cost goals
• Develop simulation‑based design methods and validate using subscale and full‑scale testing
• Lead failure investigations to determine root cause and implement mitigations
• Qualify existing and new product lines following guidance from SMC‑S‑016 and S‑080 as applicable
• Manage multiple projects and competing priorities

Required

• BS in Aerospace Engineering or related engineering discipline
• 3+ years of experience in a valve or fluid system design‑related role.
• Exceptional comprehension of engineering fundamentals including fluid mechanics, heat transfer, structural analysis, materials, and processes.
• Strong understanding of fluid systems aspects such as fluids systems sizing, valve design and operation, instrumentation, flexible element design & integration and fluid fittings
• Skilled in creating analytical/numerical models of engineering devices and processes.
• Ability to successfully manage complex projects.
• Works well in a collaborative, fast paced, multidisciplinary environment.
• Demonstrated interest in advancing “newspace”.
• Self‑motivated with minimum direction required.
• Ability to creatively develop economical solutions.
• Served as a Responsible, Manufacturing or Test engineer for an aerospace development project in a fluids related subsystem.
• Proficient with GD&T
• Proficient with DFM
• Proficient with FEA and/or CFD analysis
• Knowledge of high‑pressure, cryogenic, hydraulic, and pneumatic systems
• Experience with valve and regulator design
• Experience with liquid oxygen or other cryogenic operations
• Experience with rapid development techniques for hardware

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short‑term disability, and flexible PTO options.