Propulsion Aerothermal Analyst

Canada Rocket Company is developing Canada's first medium-lift launch vehicle.

We are a team of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, ArianeGroup, Pangea Propulsion, Tesla, MDA, and more, bringing over a century of combined launch and space systems experience back to Canada.

Our mission is to provide reliable, independent access to space for Canada and its allies in a rapidly expanding global market.

Our approach is defined by pragmatic engineering:

• We utilize a single 725 kN engine that scales from light- to medium-lift via engine clustering.
• We lean on simple, proven technologies to reach orbit faster, avoiding the pitfalls of complex or novel designs.
• We test early and often, catching problems on the bench instead of at the pad.

Backed by over $20M in funding secured within our first four months, including the largest all-Canadian seed round in the sector and an $8.3M Department of National Defence grant, we are moving with the speed and institutional backing required to meet Canada’s orbital launch needs.

About the role

We are looking for a Propulsion Aerothermal Analyst who is equally proficient in performing first order calculations as they are in running CFD or developing their own analysis code. You will work across design, analysis, development, operation, and reuse scenarios in a fast-moving development environment. This is a highly technical role for someone who wants to be close to details, make consequential design decisions, and help establish the propulsion fluids systems of an orbital launch vehicle program from the ground up.

What you'll do

• Aerothermal design of propulsion components including injectors, thrust chambers, nozzles, valves, and other fluid system parts
• Analyze regenerative, film, and radiation cooling schemes and size cooling channels to keep wall temperatures within material limits
• Analyze fluid transients, water hammer, priming, two-phase flow, cavitation, flow-induced loads, and feed system coupling across engine and stage fluid systems
• Perform thermal-fluid analysis of cryogenic propellant systems, including tank thermal management, chill-down, boil-off, thermal conditioning, and insulation performance
• Develop and validate pressurization system models (autogenous, helium, or self-pressurizing) to size pressurant requirements and predict ullage behaviour
• Build, run, and maintain steady-state and transient thermal and fluid models using tools such as Thermal Desktop/SINDA, Fluent, CFX, EcosimPro, ESPSS, Flownex, or in-house Python/MATLAB codes
• Conduct trade studies and sensitivity analyses on system architecture, cooling, geometry, and operating points to drive design decisions
• Support cold flow, hot fire, stage test, and flight campaigns with pre-test predictions and post-test data reconciliation
• Identify thermal and fluid risks and failure modes, support anomaly investigations and root-cause analysis, and recommend design or operational mitigations

Required

• 5+ years of experience with one or more of the following:
• Aerothermal analysis of aerospace propulsion components
• Creating and running 1-D flow networks for component sizing
• Performing 3-D CFD analysis on propulsion components
• Combustion analysis including liquid injection modelling
• Aerothermal analysis of cryogenic propellant systems
• Inclination toward a fast-paced, resource-constrained environment with rapid hardware development using iterative design-build-test cycles that are central to the engineering culture
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field

Preferred

• Conjugate heat transfer analysis using Fluent or similar CFD tools on rocket engine components
• Aerothermal design of liquid bipropellant rocket engines
• Experience with methane systems, including methane delivery systems
• Exposure to complex fluid systems as well as understanding the behaviour of the mechanisms in those systems
• Turbomachinery fluid analysis proficiency
• Structural analysis proficiency
• Functional proficiency in CAD (NX) and Python
• Advanced degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field