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Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Aerodynamics Analyst to join the Thermofluids Analysis team supporting the Neutron large rocket program. This role is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
You will be responsible for predicting aerodynamics and aerothermal environments for Electron and Neutron vehicles throughout all mission phases. Key responsibilities include:
- Generate aerotables and characterize vehicle performance, including stability, control authority, loads, pressure distributions, and aerodynamic design of control surfaces
- Perform, validate, and document CFD analyses across hypersonic, transonic, and subsonic regimes; characterize aerodynamic and heating environments, transients, and separation events
- Model plumes and plume interactions (base heating, PIFS, impingement); define re-entry architecture including ballistic coefficients, ConOps, and compartment venting
- Work closely with design and test engineers to iterate design concepts, determine test requirements, and demonstrate positive margins through numerical and physical testing
- Collaborate with the GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) team to enable safe landing and recovery of Neutron's first stage
- Process and interpret ground test and flight data—confirming MPE bounds, detecting out-of-family results, and resolving sensor configuration issues
Rocket Lab is the end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems. The company moves fast, builds real hardware for meaningful missions, and operates in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment where teams thrive under tight deadlines.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering or similar field
- 5+ years of industry experience, ideally from Aerospace, Automotive, or Marine industries
- Strong physics and first-principles-based approach to problem solving
- Expertise with one or more industry-standard CFD packages: Fluent, CFX, or STAR-CCM+
- Experience in engineering programming, especially Python (including numpy, pandas, scipy, matplotlib, etc.)
- Demonstrated ability executing to changing deadlines in a high-pressure, fast-paced work environment
NICE-TO-HAVE QUALIFICATIONS:
- Experience using NX CAD and Teamcenter packages (or comparable industry standard packages) with emphasis on model interrogation and defeaturing for analysis
- Experience with sensor selection and data post-processing/interpretation (accelerometers, strain gauges, thermocouples, etc.)
- Experience with one or more industry-standard thermal modeling packages: Thermal Desktop, THERMICA, or NX SST
- Experience mentoring junior engineers
IMPORTANT: For New Zealand-based roles, background checks including nationality checks will be conducted. You must be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by ITAR. You may be ineligible if you do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union, or a NATO country, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship.
