About this opportunity
Hop Aero lists this Thermal Protection Systems Engineer opportunity in orange county, ca, California. Review the employer’s description below for duties, qualifications and application requirements.
Job description
Hop Aero is a venture-backed startup building rockets that deliver cargo anywhere on Earth in minutes.
Our mission is to enable resilient global logistics to protect and improve our way of life.
Our founding team has prior experience founding a satellite startup and taking it to orbit, launching 20+ Falcon 9 missions at SpaceX, and leading engineering teams at some of the world’s most advanced aerospace organizations. The company is well-capitalized through venture funding and government contracts.
We’re hiring a Thermal Protection Systems Engineer to develop the thermal protection that enables our rocket-powered cargo vehicles to withstand high-speed atmospheric flight and reentry. Your work will directly shape the vehicle’s design, thermal performance, and ability to be reused.
This is a hands-on role for someone with roughly five or more years of relevant experience who enjoys connecting analysis to real hardware. You will own TPS development from requirements and material selection through design, manufacturing, integration, and testing. You will work alongside structures, aerodynamics, GNC, propulsion, and manufacturing to turn thermal requirements into flight hardware.
Own thermal-protection development from requirements and concept selection through hardware testing and vehicle integration
Translate aerodynamic heating environments into TPS requirements, thermal margins, and verification plans
Evaluate materials, insulation, coatings, and TPS architectures against thermal performance, mass, manufacturability, inspection, and reuse requirements
Develop thermal models and work with structures and mechanical engineers on attachments, interfaces, and thermal expansion
Plan and execute material, coupon, and component tests; Work directly with suppliers and manufacturing partners to build repeatable hardware and resolve manufacturing issues
Support vehicle integration, ground and flight testing, and post-test inspection to guide design improvements
5-10 years of relevant experience in thermal protection, high-temperature aerospace hardware, aerothermal engineering, or a closely related field
~ Strong understanding of heat transfer and experience applying thermal analysis to hardware design
~ Experience developing or evaluating thermal-protection materials or systems, including their integration with surrounding hardware
~ Demonstrated ability to take engineering work through design, manufacturing or procurement, and testing
~ Experience interpreting experimental data, investigating discrepancies, and validating analytical models
~ Ability to make practical tradeoffs across thermal performance, mass, structural interfaces, cost, and manufacturability
~ Willingness to work directly with hardware and collaborate across engineering disciplines
~ Willingness to travel domestically to support testing, including between our headquarters in Orange, CA, and our out-of-state test site
~ S. person under ITAR — Hop Aero will not sponsor visas for this role.
Experience with reentry vehicles, hypersonic flight, reusable spacecraft, or other demanding aerospace thermal environments
Experience with ablative, ceramic, metallic, or composite thermal-protection systems
Experience with arc-jet, plasma, wind-tunnel, or other relevant thermal testing
Familiarity with CFD, aerothermal environment prediction, or coupled thermal-structural analysis
Experience with temperature and heat-flux instrumentation, flight-data correlation, or post-flight inspection
Base salary of $120,000–$180,000, depending on experience and scope, plus stock options
Healthcare, office meals, and snacks
Ownership of a defined vehicle capability, with a direct connection between your engineering decisions and hardware performance
Who can apply
Review the original listing for work authorization, qualifications and employer requirements.