Fluids Analyst

What you'd do

• Own the full lifecycle of fluids prediction and data for the team — from first-order sizing models through correlated, test-anchored models used for flight.
• Build and maintain 1D fluid network and transient system models of engine and vehicle fluid systems to predict pressure drop, flow capability, and thermal performance.
• Perform early-phase simulation and trade studies to inform architecture selection, line and orifice sizing, valve and regulator selection, and pressurization schedules before hardware is committed.
• Predict flow capability and pressure budgets across the system: line and fitting losses, flow distribution and manifold balance, cavitation and choked-flow margin, NPSH, and engine inlet conditions.
• Analyze transient behavior — water hammer, priming and chill-in, valve sequencing, blowdown and ullage collapse, tank pressurization and thermal stratification.
• Perform CFD analysis of valves, manifolds, and other internal-flow components to resolve loss coefficients, flow distribution, and local behavior that lumped models cannot capture.
• Perform thermal-fluid analysis including two-phase and cryogenic behavior, heat leak, insulation performance, and conjugate heat transfer in fluid components.
• Define the instrumentation and measurement requirements needed to validate your models — specify what gets measured, where, at what rate, and to what accuracy.
• Support component-level and system-level test campaigns: write analysis-driven test objectives and predictions and set red lines and expected values.
• Own reduction and analytics of fluids test data — build the data pipelines, automate processing across runs, quantify uncertainty, and turn raw channels into engineering quantities.

What they want

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience performing fluid system analysis for flight vehicles, propulsion systems, or other high-performance hardware.
• Strong fundamentals in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer, including compressible flow, two-phase flow, and transient system behavior.
• Experience building 1D fluid network or transient system models with tools such as Flownex, AFT (Fathom/Arrow/Impulse), EASY5, GFSSP, Simulink, or equivalent in-house codes.
• Hands-on experience with commercial or open-source CFD (ANSYS Fluent, Siemens STAR-CCM+, or OpenFOAM) applied to internal flow problems.
• Proficiency with Python (NumPy, pandas) or MATLAB for model development, data reduction, and automation of analysis workflows.
• Experience reducing and interpreting real test data, including correlating analytical predictions against measurements.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.