Anduril
Thermal Engineer, Thermal Protection Systems (TPS)
$132K–$175K
Costa Mesa, California, United States · Full-time · Posted Sep 18, 2026
- 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.
- Build and maintain thermal models; define and execute thermal and material characterization tests.
- Integrate TPS with cross-functional vehicle designs and communicate risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations in design reviews.
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, arcjet or thermal characterization testing, or flight-article thermal instrumentation.
- Experience with high-temperature materials, radiation modeling tools, MATLAB or Python, NASA TPS tools, or flight programs.
Pay
$132,000 — $175,000 USD (base salary)
Tools
FIAT, CMA, TITAN, DPLR, US3D, Loci-CHEM, CFD++, ANSYS Fluent
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative