GNC Engineer

CFD Engineer - Aerodynamics & Propulsion

High-Fidelity Simulation | Internal & External Flows | Inlet, Combustor & Nozzle Analysis

Location

Orange County, California - Hybrid; remote considered for the right candidate

Employment Type

Full-time

Department

Engineering - Aerodynamics & Propulsion

Compensation

100,000-170,000 base salary, plus equity

Eligibility

U.S. citizenship required

About Tiberius Aerospace

Tiberius Aerospace is a cutting-edge aerospace and defense company developing advanced, mission-critical technologies for government and private-sector customers. We focus on high-performance aerospace systems, secure engineering solutions, and complex hardware built for demanding operational environments.

As we scale quickly, we are looking for engineers who operate with ownership, urgency, technical discipline, and sound judgment in a high-stakes environment.

The Role

Tiberius Aerospace is seeking a hands-on CFD Engineer to support aerodynamic and propulsion analysis across advanced air vehicle and munition programs.

You will own the day-to-day simulation workflow: creating meshes, setting up and solving high-fidelity CFD cases, post-processing results, and translating findings into clear design guidance. Your work will span internal flows-including inlets, combustors, and nozzles-as well as external aerodynamics across subsonic through high-supersonic flight regimes.

This is an opportunity for an engineer who wants to build deep computational expertise while contributing directly to real flight hardware, propulsion integration, and next-generation precision-strike systems.

What You’ll Do

CFD Analysis & Simulation Execution

• Set up, solve, and post-process high-fidelity CFD simulations for:
  • Internal flows, including inlets, combustors, and nozzles
  • External aerodynamic flows across the flight envelope
• Support inlet and nozzle flow-path design studies using RANS and transient CFD methods, as appropriate to the design phase.
• Develop computational meshes for internal and external flow domains, balancing mesh fidelity, turnaround time, and computational cost.
• Configure and run RANS simulations and, where needed, transient methods such as DES or DDES.
• Support reacting-flow CFD analysis, including fuel injection, atomization, and combustion modeling under the direction of propulsion engineering leadership.
• Use viscous-coupled panel methods and method-of-characteristics tools for rapid conceptual studies ahead of high-fidelity CFD confirmation.
• Generate aerodynamic and propulsion databases for vehicle-performance modeling, trajectory simulation, and flight dynamics analysis.
• Extract and communicate performance metrics including pressure recovery, inlet distortion, thrust and drag bookkeeping, and aerodynamic coefficients.
• Execute large-scale parametric studies on commercial or government high-performance computing platforms.
• Manage CFD job submission, monitoring, parallel scaling, data organization, and troubleshooting of convergence or solver-stability issues.

Validation, Data Products & Documentation

• Correlate CFD predictions against wind tunnel, direct-connect, ground-test, and flight-test data.
• Help identify, investigate, and document sources of discrepancy between analysis and test results.
• Provide pre-test CFD predictions to support test planning, test-point selection, and success criteria.
• Package CFD-derived data products in formats that are useful to downstream vehicle-performance, trajectory, and flight-controls teams.
• Maintain rigorous, reproducible documentation for each major analysis campaign, including:
  • Mesh-generation procedures
  • Boundary conditions
  • Solver configuration and settings
  • Convergence criteria
  • Validation and correlation basis
  • Post-processing methodology

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Aerodynamics, Propulsion, Flight Dynamics & Controls, Test, and Manufacturing teams.
• Translate design questions into well-posed CFD studies and translate simulation results into practical design recommendations.
• Participate in technical and program design reviews, providing CFD-based support for aerodynamic and propulsion decisions.
• Coordinate CFD study scope, priority, and turnaround requirements against program milestones.
• Partner with computing-infrastructure support on HPC access, software licensing, and computational-resource allocation.

What You’ll Bring

• B.S. or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 2-5 years of CFD experience, including relevant graduate research, internships, or professional engineering work on air vehicle, propulsion, or munition programs.
• Hands-on experience with at least one major CFD solver, such as:
  • ANSYS Fluent
  • STAR-CCM+
  • FUN3D
  • Kestrel
  • CFD++
• Experience with meshing tools and mesh-generation strategies for internal and external aerodynamic flow domains.
• Strong foundation in compressible aerodynamics and propulsion flow physics from subsonic through high-supersonic regimes.
• Proficiency in CFD post-processing, data reduction, visualization, and automation.
• Ability to communicate technical results clearly, including assumptions, uncertainty, and limitations.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Internal-flow CFD experience involving air-breathing propulsion systems, inlets, combustors, or nozzles.
• Experience with reacting-flow, combustion, fuel-injection, or atomization modeling.
• Familiarity with LES, DES, DDES, or other transient high-fidelity approaches for operability and distortion analysis.
• Experience running CFD on commercial or DoD HPC systems, including job scheduling and parallel-performance scaling.
• Experience correlating CFD predictions with wind tunnel, ground-test, direct-connect, or flight-test data.
• Experience supporting high-dynamic, high-g, or gun-launched flight environments.
• Active security clearance or demonstrated ability to obtain one.

What Success Looks Like

You are comfortable in the details of a simulation: mesh quality, boundary conditions, turbulence modeling, convergence behavior, and solver stability. You know a CFD result is only valuable when it is technically sound, clearly documented, and delivered in a form the next engineer can use.

You bring strong fundamentals, intellectual honesty, and the judgment to flag a result when it does not look right. You are eager to deepen your expertise in propulsion integration and flight-vehicle aerodynamics while taking on increasing ownership of analysis campaigns.

Compensation & Benefits

Tiberius Aerospace offers:

• Base salary of 100,000-170,000, commensurate with experience
• Equity participation
• Comprehensive health benefits
• 401(k)
• The opportunity to work on advanced, mission-critical aerospace hardware with direct technical impact

Growth Opportunity

As Tiberius scales through Series A and into full-rate development, this engineer will take on progressively greater responsibility-from independently leading CFD studies to growing into a senior aerodynamics or propulsion engineering role.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Tiberius Aerospace is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to maintaining a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other status protected by applicable law.

Applicants who require a reasonable accommodation during the application process may contact [email protected].

Tiberius Aerospace participates in E-Verify.