Senior Propulsion Engineer
Firefly Aerospace
Other Engineering
Cedar Park, TX, USA
Posted on Friday, April 22, 2022
ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE
At Firefly, we are focused on the leading edge of space systems progression. Our company is committed to providing economical and convenient access to space for small payloads through the design, manufacture, and operation of reliable launch vehicles and spacecraft. To get there, we are looking for incredibly passionate, bright, and determined people to join our team.
SUMMARY
As a Senior Propulsion Engineer you will leverage your creativity, ingenuity, and experience to produce the next generation of rocket engines for space exploration and accessibility. At Firefly we strive to make the world’s simplest rocket engine by decreasing complexity to increase reliability and performance while lowering cost. In this role you will produce innovative solutions to challenging problems throughout a project’s full life cycle, including design, analysis, manufacturing, testing, and operational support. You will take profound ownership of your projects, and will collaborate with other product groups (structures, fluid systems, avionics, vehicle/spacecraft systems) to make critical decisions. To be successful in this role, you should embrace challenging problems and be able to synthesize disparate pieces of information to establish best path forward. Your passion and determination will create leading edge propulsion systems in a fast-paced environment.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Serve as a mentor for the existing propulsion engineers, providing technical guidance and leadership
- Develop new, innovative design concepts for propulsion components and experimental tooling, that reduce part count and complexity
- Execute design for manufacturability changes to enhance production efficiency
- Identify and trade strategies to meet design requirements of flight hardware and tooling
- Make development decisions based on technical merit, risk, cost, schedule, and/or quality assurance
- Assist in the development of manufacturing, integration, and test processes, including work instructions, test procedures, and early build support
- Coordinate and execute development, qualification, and acceptance testing of flight hardware
- Partner with engineering and production teams to generate ideas, designs, and improvements for current and next-generation liquid rocket engines
QUALIFICATIONS
Required
- BS in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
- 3+ years of experience in a related aerospace or mechanical field, with a focus in propulsion or fluid systems
- Experience leading technical reviews (design & analysis) or investigations (risk, anomaly, or trade studies)
- Proven experience in data review, data analysis, and report generation
- Experience in Siemens NX or equivalent CAD program
- Comprehension of design fundamentals including tolerancing, ASME Standards, ASTM, and GD&T
- Strong engineering fundamentals in compressible and incompressible flow, heat transfer, combustion devices, rocket engine cycles, and mechanics
- Understanding of P&IDs, fluid system sizing, fluid component and instrumentation selection, fluid dynamics fundamentals, cryogenic systems and pressurized systems
- Experience with maturing a conceptual design for use in a production environment
Desired
- MS or PhD in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
- Strong interpersonal and organizational skills
- Familiarity with presenting trade studies, risks, schedules, requirements, and budget to program management or leadership
- Experience with liquid rocket engine development, design, test, or flight operations
- Experience with liquid rocket engine subcomponent or pressurized component (valves, regulators, tubes, pipes, etc.) development, design, or test
- A passion for product optimization design and rapid manufacturing
- Hands-on experience with integrating test articles and sub-assemblies for test or production
- Proven experience in working with data acquisition systems and test instrumentation including pressure transducers, thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors, flow meters, load cells, and accelerometers
- Familiarity with some or all of the following software packages: Python, LabVIEW, GFSSP, Winplot, or other control, data acquisition, and reduction software
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.