ENGINEER - RESEARCH ENGINEER - Propulsion System Engineer at Southwest Research Institute

Who We Are:

The Liquid Propulsion Team performs R&D to solve challenges and advance technology in machinery and power systems, focusing on liquid propulsion. We support actual launch, landing, lunar, and orbital vehicles and ground equipment, ranging from high-g to 0-g and supercritical to cryogenic conditions.

Objectives of this Role:

• Design, analysis, and testing for fluid, thermal, and machinery projects. Technical areas include propulsion and power energy systems with a focus on liquid propulsion applications for space launch vehicles, lander vehicles, satellites and orbiters.
• Contribute to projects for actual flight systems and ground support equipment. Contribute to projects that deal with storable and cryogenic fluids.
• Contribute to projects that range from multiples g’s to zero g’s.
• Solve challenges on components and/or systems that span between the pressurant tanks, through pressurization systems, into the propellant tanks, down the feedlines, and out the engine nozzles.
• Work on diverse and flexible teams with our experts in feedline and pogo instability, slosh dynamics and control, microgravity propellant management, thermal management, and pressurization modeling.
• Write technical reports, papers, proposals, and presentations to support client deliverables, technical professional organizations and SwRI business development.
• We empower each other towards research areas of interest and career growth.

Daily and Monthly Responsibilities:

• Perform design and analysis tasks for fluid, thermal, and machinery projects using engineering software, self-created analytical toolsets, and existing knowledge from engineering standards, technical literature, and industry techniques
• Provide experimental test support for both component-level and system-level testing of propulsion and energy machinery
• Perform engineering and scientific research and investigations to support projects and advance the state-of-the-art.
• Interpret and present findings and results to project team and clients in a concise and clear way.
• Provide support to more than one project in a flexible and diverse team environment.
• Have and demonstrate a firm grasp of engineering and scientific disciplines and applied first principles. Learn new technical skills to complete project work.
• Occasionally assist other Machinery Department programs in related application areas, including air-breathing propulsion, oil & gas, combustion, renewable energies, and power generation.

Requirements:

• Requires a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related engineering degree
• 0-5 years: Conducting fluid and thermal system analyses using commercial or custom software, such as flow network, computational fluid dynamics, or mechanical analysis solvers. Firm understanding of the underlying physics of fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, aerodynamics, or heat transfer.
• 0-5 years: Design or analysis experience in space or launch vehicle propulsion systems. Experience and interest in the following other applications is desired, but not required: cryogenic fluids; microgravity fluids; guidance, navigation and control (GNC), mechanical design and fabrication.
• 0-5 years: Experimental test experience of fluid and thermal systems; including, designing, building, commissioning, operating, and analyzing data.
• A valid/clear driver's license is required.