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Salary: USD 120,000 - 150,000 / annual
Cowboy Space Corp., founded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt (Robinhood co-founder) and backed by leading investors, is building satellite infrastructure for the orbital economy. The company operates Low Earth Orbit satellites that collect sunlight and enable on-orbit compute, space-to-earth and space-to-space energy transmission via infrared lasers, and secure optical data delivery.
As a Fluids Engineer, you will own the design and development of fluid system hardware across the vehicle's propulsion, fluids, and thermal management architectures. This encompasses valves (flow control, isolation, regulation, check, relief), fluid storage systems (tanks, pressure vessels, accumulators), fluid routing (tubing, fittings, brackets, manifolds), and integrated subsystems. You will work across the complete lifecycle—from concept and analysis through build, test, and flight—delivering hardware that meets performance, mass, and reliability requirements in demanding launch and space environments.
Key responsibilities include: designing valves for propellant, pressurant, and thermal fluid systems; developing fluid storage hardware from concept through qualification; designing fluid routing architecture and subsystem layout; performing hydraulic and pneumatic analysis (pressure drop, flow distribution, water hammer, thermal transients); conducting structural analysis (FEA, hand calculations) and validation; selecting materials compatible with propellants and operating environments (cryogenic, high-pressure, corrosive); generating detailed drawings, specifications, and interface control documents; supporting component and system-level testing; collaborating with manufacturing and technicians on build issues and producibility; supporting vehicle integration and ground system interfaces; and contributing to anomaly investigation and design improvements.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical, or related engineering; 3+ years designing fluid system hardware for flight or high-performance applications; experience with fluid system analysis; hands-on experience from design through build and test; proficiency with CAD tools (NX, CATIA, SolidWorks).
Preferred qualifications include launch vehicle or spacecraft propulsion experience, cryogenic fluid handling knowledge, valve design/qualification experience, material compatibility with propellants (LOX, methane, hydrazine, NTO) and pressurants, additive manufacturing familiarity, and knowledge of industry standards (AIAA, SAE, MIL-spec, ASME).
