{"id":1770949,"url":"https://alion.io/job/spacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer","title":"Senior Aerothermal Analysis Engineer","company":{"id":2086894,"name":"SpaceNexus","domain":"spacenexus.us","url":"https://alion.io/company/spacenexus","size_band":"1-10","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Schema","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":100,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":13,"computed_at":"2026-10-23T05:54:15Z"}},"role":"Aerospace","role_family":"Aerospace","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Los Angeles, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":111000,"max_usd":210000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":5966},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Fortran","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"MPI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"C","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-03T00:26:33Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-03","last_verified_at":"2026-10-23T16:41:58Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":20,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":20},"description":"Senior Aerothermal Analysis Engineer\nLocation: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week)\nThe return lane isn’t going to build itself. Come build it with us.\nOutpost is an orbital logistics company rewriting the rules of global logistics by building reusable Earth-return vehicles that unlock in-space manufacturing, on-orbit warehousing, and 60-minute global delivery through space.\nOur CarryAll vehicle family returns payloads ranging from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons, lands within 10 meters of its target, and can then be refurbished and launched again. One vehicle, many missions: responsive logistics and precision delivery for national security; commercial cargo moved with real cadence; R&D payloads flown, tested, and refined across repeatable cycles; and critical aid delivered where roads and runways can’t reach.\nThe demand is already here, validated through defense and civil agreements and supported by a growing pipeline of government and commercial customers.\nWe have the customers, the team, and a clear technical path ahead of us. We’re building the return lane. Come build it with us.\nThe Role\nThe Senior Aerothermal Analysis Engineer will own the aerothermal environments for CarryAll, combining high-fidelity CFD, engineering-level methods, and test data into the database that drives thermal protection system (TPS) sizing, structural design, and trajectory. On every return, CarryAll's deployable heatshield and structure pass through very different flow regimes as the vehicle slows from Mach 25, from rarefied upper-atmosphere flow through peak heating and down to subsonic descent. Because CarryAll is built to fly again, the environments don't just size a heatshield for one flight; they define how the thermal protection system holds up across many.\nResponsibilities\nOwn aerothermal environment definition for CarryAll across its full flight envelope, from early trade studies through flight, and keep it current as the design evolves.\nSet up and run high-enthalpy CFD at the key trajectory points that anchor the environments, capturing thermochemical non-equilibrium effects where they matter.\nBridge the gaps between CFD points with fast engineering heating methods, so every trajectory and attitude of interest has a credible answer without a full solve.\nCombine CFD, engineering estimates, and ground and flight test results into a single environment product with clearly stated uncertainties and margins.\nWork alongside Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) engineers and hardware owners such as TPS, structures, and mechanism engineers to define environments that set TPS thickness, structural temperatures, and trajectory limits for flight hardware.\nAdd solver capability when standard tools can't capture the physics, such as custom US3D subroutines for finite-rate chemistry, ablation products, and CarryAll-specific boundary conditions.\nProve out new and existing methods against analytical cases, arc-jet and wind tunnel tests, and flight data.\nAutomate environment generation and delivery so updates keep pace with design iterations.\nManaging and maintaining compute resources.\nQualifications\nBachelor's degree or higher in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering.\n5+ years of experience in hypersonic, supersonic, reentry, or rocketry aerothermodynamic analysis.\nExperience running high-enthalpy flow solvers (FUN3D, US3D, DPLR or similar).\nExperience with parallel scientific computing (e.g., MPI), high-performance computing environments, and large-scale CFD campaign automation.\nExperience with handbook and engineering-level heating estimation methods (e.g., Fay-Riddell, Tauber, MINIVER-class tools, or similar correlations).\nStrong fundamentals in hypersonic aerodynamics, boundary layer physics, and convective and radiative heat transfer.\nExperience modeling high-temperature gas dynamics and chemistry, including thermochemical non-equilibrium.\nProficiency in programming languages like Python, Fortran, C++, or MATLAB for analysis tooling and automation.\nProven ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment with rapid iteration.\nPreferred Experience\nActive U.S. Government Security Clearance (Not required, but beneficial).\nMaster's or PhD in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, or an equivalent field.\nDirect experience with FUN3D, including extension through user-defined subroutines.\nExperience developing aerodynamic databases.\nExperience with uncertainty quantification and the definition of design margins for aerothermal environments.\nExperience integrating ground and flight test data into aerothermal vehicle models.\nExperience with boundary layer transition prediction and its treatment in heating environments.\nExperience with deployable or flexible decelerators and thermal protection systems (e.g., HIAD, ADEPT) or reusable TPS.\nFamiliarity with Fidelity Pointwise or equivalent meshing software for generating high-quality meshes.\nExperience modeling radiative heating using radiation transport tools.\nFamiliarity with TPS sizing and material response tools (e.g., FIAT, CHAR) as downstream consumers of environments.\nExperience contributing to an aerothermal database effort from a vehicle's early design stages through first flight.\nInvolvement in planning, leading, and/or post-processing wind tunnel or arc-jet test campaigns.\nPrior experience working in startups and/or small independent teams.\nCompensation:\nCompetitive compensation: $170,000 - $225,000 annual salary; (commensurate with experience).\nAdditional Compensation : Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.\nShared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.\nComprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental.\nProtection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.\nPTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.\nInvest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.\nFueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.\nMission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.\nPet Friendly Office : Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.\nMonthly Company Happy Hours and Events : Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more!\nYou must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 , or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6858,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Health insurance","Life insurance","Pet friendly"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Space & Aerospace"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-03T15:32:03Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":16,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.35,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":20,"expected_fill_days":13,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:tail","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-23T05:54:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/spacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/spacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-23T22:38:34Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":5535,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-24T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2086894},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2086894"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fspacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fspacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fspacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/spacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fspacenexus-senior-aerothermal-analysis-engineer"}]}