Senior Propulsion Analyst (Structural)
Impulse Space
IT
USD 130k-175k / year + Equity
Posted on Jul 19, 2025
As a Senior Propulsion Analyst (Structural) at Impulse your core responsibility will be to facilitate the design and development of liquid propellant rocket engine hardware with thermal and structural analysis.
- Department
- Propulsion Engineering
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Location
- Redondo Beach
- Workplace type
- Onsite
- Compensation
- $130,000 - $175,000 / year
Responsibilities
- Perform and document static, thermal, dynamic, and fatigue analysis to guide design and development of liquid propellant rocket engine hardware.
- Ensure model predictions are grounded in reality through a practical hands-on approach.
- Contribute to developing analysis processes and tools to be used company wide. Achieve buy in with key stakeholders and provide training for general use.
- Provide professional development, mentorship, and technical guidance to peers.
Minimum Qualifications
- B.S. degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, or a comparable field.
- 4+ years of demonstrated experience with thermal/structural analysis on liquid propellant rocket engines or similar high-performance systems.
- 4+ years of professional experience in structural analysis with commercial FEA software (e.g. ANSYS, Abaqus, Nastran) and hand-calc methods.
- Basic experience with 3D CAD software (NX preferred)
Preferred Skills and Experience
- M.S. or PhD degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, or a comparable field.
- Experience working in fast-paced, startup environment.
- Advanced proficiency with ANSYS.
- Familiarity with material, geometric, and contact non-linear analysis.
- Experience with high and low-cycle fatigue analysis as well as crack propagation analysis with commercial software (e.g. NASGRO)
- Programing experience for creating analysis tools or performing hand-calcs. Python preferred. Matlab or other high-level languages acceptable.
- Experience deriving loads and thermal environments to feed into structural assessment.
- Cross disciplinary fluid analysis experience (e.g. hand calc, CFD [CFX, Star-CCM+], fluid network modeling).
- Familiarity with aerospace structural analysis standards pertinent to liquid rocket engine development (e.g. NASA-STD-5012, NASA-STD-5020)
- Experience in root-cause analysis.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
About Impulse Space
Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go.
Our Hiring Process
Stage 1:
Application Received
Stage 2:
Resume Review
Stage 3:
Intro Phone Interview
Stage 4:
Technical Phone Interview(s)
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