Anduril
Thermal Engineer, Thermal Protection Systems (TPS)
$144K–$191K
Mountain View, California, United States +1 · Full-time · Posted Sep 18, 2026
- Location
- Mountain View, California, United States
Costa Mesa, California, United States - Experience
- 2+ years in TPS design, aerothermal analysis, or high-temperature material response for aerospace or defense systems; experience supporting thermal design for hypersonic vehicles, reentry systems, missiles, rocket nozzles, or other systems in extreme aerothermal environments.
- Education
- MS or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field with a focus on aerothermodynamics, heat transfer, thermal sciences, or materials science.
About the job
Owns the design, analysis, testing, and validation of thermal protection systems for hypersonic and high-speed flight vehicles in extreme aerothermal environments.
What you'll do
- Design and select TPS materials, and analyze heating, ablation, material response, and thermal margins.
- Define and execute thermal and material characterization tests; build models to predict performance and support qualification.
- Integrate TPS with vehicle teams, communicate design risks and tradeoffs, and support failure investigations.
What they ask for
- MS or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field focused on aerothermodynamics, heat transfer, thermal sciences, or materials science.
- Strong first-principles understanding of aerodynamic heating, ablation, high-temperature heat transfer, and material thermal response.
- Experience with material response modeling tools such as FIAT, CMA, TITAN, or equivalent ablation/thermal response codes.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret security clearance.
Nice to have
- Experience with aerothermal CFD, thermal characterization or arcjet testing, or high-temperature materials.
- Experience with radiation modeling tools, MATLAB or Python, NASA TPS heritage tools, or flight programs.
Pay
$144,000 — $191,000 USD (base salary)
Tools
FIAT, CMA, TITAN, DPLR, US3D, Loci-CHEM, CFD++, ANSYS Fluent
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative