Thermal Engineer, Thermal Protection Systems (TPS)
Core
Design, analysis, and validation of thermal protection systems (TPS) for hypersonic and high-speed flight vehicles operating in extreme aerothermal environments.
Role type
Senior IC thermal engineer (TPS)
Builds
Hypersonic vehicles, reentry systems, missiles, and advanced flight platforms
Domain
Aerospace / Defense / Hypersonics
Deliverable
production ML models | product features | dashboards & analysis | research | client delivery | infrastructure | physical/clinical work
Required skills
aerothermal heating analysis, ablation modeling, high-temperature material response, first-principles thermal calculations, CFD, FEA, TPS material selection, test execution, failure analysis
Preferred skills
aerothermal CFD (DPLR, US3D, ANSYS Fluent), arcjet testing, high-temperature composites, radiation modeling (NEQAIR), trajectory-based heating analysis, NASA TPS heritage tools
Technologies
FIAT, CMA, TITAN, DPLR, US3D, Loci-CHEM, CFD++, ANSYS Fluent, STAR-CCM+, NEQAIR, HARA, MATLAB, Python, TPSX, CEA, CBAero
Responsibilities
Own TPS design, material selection, and thermal analysis for hypersonic vehicles; Perform aerothermal heating analysis using correlations, boundary-layer methods, and CFD; Conduct ablation and material response modeling to predict recession and thermal margins; Evaluate and select TPS materials based on loads and constraints; Partner with aerodynamics, structures, and propulsion engineers to integrate TPS; Define and execute thermal characterization tests (arcjet, furnace, flight-article); Build and maintain thermal models from hand calculations to detailed FEA/CFD; Present TPS status and recommendations in design reviews; Support failure reviews and root-cause investigations
Seniority
Senior, hands-on IC