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Salary: USD 100,000 - 135,000 / annual
Cowboy Space Corp., founded in 2024 by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, is building satellite infrastructure for the orbital economy. The company operates Low Earth Orbit satellites that collect sunlight, enable on-orbit compute, transmit energy via infrared lasers, and deliver secure optical data. Backed by leading investors and staffed by aerospace and defense veterans, Cowboy Space is rapidly solving complex technical challenges in space infrastructure.
As a Fluids Engineer, you will own a critical fluid system from concept through flight qualification and deployment. Depending on team priorities, your assignment will focus on one of: propulsion fluid design (main propulsion valves, throttling valves, engine fluid routing and manifolding); vehicle propulsion feed systems (prevalves, propellant feedlines); vehicle tank pressure controls (vent valves, repress systems); or vehicle pneumatic systems (inert gas valves, regulators, fluid routing, and storage for actuation and control).
This is a hands-on role at the center of propulsion and vehicle hardware development. You will work closely with propulsion, structures, thermal, avionics, manufacturing, and test operations to design integrated systems, build hardware, and validate through test. You'll move quickly, iterate often, and take full ownership of fluid hardware that directly impacts mission success.
Key responsibilities include: owning your fluid subsystem from concept through design, analysis, test, and flight; driving component and system designs for minimum mass while meeting pressure drop, proof, burst, leakage, cycle-life, and operating-life requirements; designing valves, fluid routing architectures, and storage hardware for propellant, pneumatic, and thermal fluid service; balancing performance, manufacturability, cost, and schedule; performing hand calculations, FEA, and tolerance stack-ups; owning subsystem layout and integration; defining and executing qualification and acceptance test campaigns; developing engineering drawings, models, specifications, and interface control documents; working directly on the factory floor with manufacturing and technicians; troubleshooting hardware anomalies and performing root cause analysis; and supporting engine and vehicle integration, hot-fire operations, and ground system interfaces.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, or Chemical Engineering; 1+ years designing fluid system hardware (valves, regulators, tanks, tubing, fittings, manifolds) for flight vehicles or high-performance hardware; experience taking hardware from concept through build, integration, and test; strong fundamentals in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, structural mechanics, materials, and manufacturing; experience with fluid system analysis (pressure drop, flow sizing, structural analysis, thermal-fluid modeling); proficiency with CAD (NX, SolidWorks, CATIA, Creo) and ASME Y14.5 GD&T standards; U.S. citizenship or permanent residency required.
Preferred qualifications include 3+ years of flight hardware experience, direct rocket engine or spacecraft propulsion experience, valve and regulator design/qualification experience, cryogenic fluid handling knowledge, material and seal compatibility with common propellants and pneumatics, familiarity with AIAA, ASME, SAE, and MIL-spec standards, hands-on prototyping or machining experience, propulsion hot-fire testing experience, and startup or early-stage program experience.
