Engine Responsible Engineer

Fluid Systems, P&IDs, and Tubing

• Own engine-level fluid schematics, P&IDs, pressure budgets, operating states, and interface documentation.
• Own the design and integration of engine tubing and plumbing systems.
• Establish tubing requirements for sizing, routing, pressure drop, thermal contraction, flexibility, vibration, supports, joints, cleanliness, inspectability, manufacturability, assembly, and serviceability.
• Define and maintain engine interfaces with propellant tanks, vehicle feed systems, pressurization systems, ground-support equipment, and test infrastructure.
• Review fluid-system analyses involving pressure loss, flow distribution, chilldown, cavitation margin, two-phase behavior, thermal conditioning, and transient response.
• Ensure the physical engine configuration accurately reflects the released P&IDs, analyses, procedures, and test configuration.

Engine Development and Analysis

• Apply engineering fundamentals in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, combustion, and structural mechanics to solve engine-development problems.
• Define engine operating envelopes, performance requirements, startup and shutdown sequences, conditioning procedures, redlines, and abort criteria.
• Lead or review engine-system analyses, simulations, and trade studies.
• Support subsystem troubleshooting and investigations involving combustion devices, turbomachinery, valves, heat exchangers, instrumentation, ignition systems, and controls.
• Partner with avionics, vehicle, structures, thermal, manufacturing, and test teams to investigate cross-functional technical issues.
• Translate test results and operational experience into improved designs, models, procedures, and requirements.

Test Campaign Ownership

• Serve as the Responsible Engineer for engine and propulsion-system test articles.
• Define component, subsystem, and integrated engine test campaigns in collaboration with hardware owners and partner teams.
• Establish clear test objectives, configurations, instrumentation requirements, test matrices, success criteria, and data-review expectations.
• Author and approve test plans, procedures, sequences, redlines, and readiness documentation.
• Lead test readiness reviews, pre-test briefings, real-time technical decision-making, and post-test data reviews.
• Sit console during cold-flow, component, subsystem, and hot-fire testing.
• Own the exploratory operation of new and existing engine designs, including the controlled expansion of operating envelopes.
• Review test data to evaluate combustion performance, turbomachinery behavior, valve timing, thermal response, system stability, hardware health, and overall engine performance.
• Troubleshoot technical issues during test campaigns and determine whether testing should proceed, pause, or change direction.
• Lead anomaly investigations and root-cause analyses, then ensure corrective actions are incorporated into the design or operating approach.
• Maintain configuration control and traceability across design revisions, manufacturing deviations, test articles, and flight hardware.

Hands-On Execution

• Work directly with test articles and flight hardware during assembly, integration, checkout, and troubleshooting.
• Support activities such as leak checks, proof testing, cleanliness verification, instrumentation checkout, and functional testing.
• Write or review test sequences, data-processing scripts, analysis tools, and automated health-monitoring methods.
• Design tooling, fixtures, instrumentation installations, or temporary test hardware when necessary to keep development moving.
• Work closely with manufacturing and suppliers to ensure engine hardware can be built, inspected, assembled, tested, serviced, and repeated reliably.
• Demonstrate the ability to execute high-ownership projects on ambitious schedules, including developing unconventional solutions when appropriate.

Stage Testing and Flight Operations

• Support integrated stage and vehicle test campaigns as the propulsion system matures.
• Define propulsion-related stage-test objectives, instrumentation requirements, operating limits, and success criteria.
• Develop engine and propulsion concepts of operations for ground testing, launch, ascent, in-space operation, safing, and contingency scenarios.
• Participate in vehicle-level readiness reviews and mission simulations.
• Support launch and flight operations from console as the engine or propulsion Responsible Engineer.
• Review stage and flight data and use the results to guide continued engine development and certification.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or another relevant science, engineering, technology, or mathematics field.
• Significant experience developing liquid rocket engines or similarly complex, high-performance cryogenic propulsion systems.
• Direct experience supporting a large cryogenic rocket engine through multiple phases of development and integrated testing.
• Demonstrated technical ownership of a complete engine, major engine subsystem, or propulsion test campaign.
• Strong understanding of liquid rocket engine systems, cryogenic fluid behavior, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer.
• Experience developing and reviewing P&IDs, fluid schematics, pressure budgets, operating sequences, and system-interface documentation.
• Experience designing tubing and plumbing for cryogenic, high-pressure, high-vibration, or high-temperature applications.
• Experience planning and executing propulsion tests, defining instrumentation, sitting console, reviewing data, and resolving anomalies.
• Ability to move effectively between analysis, detailed design, manufacturing, hardware integration, and test operations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead collaborative, high-ownership projects through completion on ambitious schedules.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to make technically sound decisions with incomplete information.
• Willingness to work hands-on with hardware and support testing or flight operations outside normal working hours when required.

Nice to Have

• Experience with pump-fed LOX/LH2 rocket engines.
• Experience with expander-cycle or dual-expander-cycle engines.
• Experience with large engine hot-fire campaigns and the progressive expansion of engine operating envelopes.
• Experience with combustion devices, turbomachinery, cryogenic valves, heat exchangers, ignition systems, or high-speed instrumentation.
• Experience with engine startup transients, chilldown, cavitation, combustion stability, thermal management, and turbomachinery dynamics.
• Experience developing additively manufactured thrust chambers, injectors, manifolds, or turbomachinery components.
• Experience with clustered-engine or multi-thrust-chamber architectures.
• Experience defining engine acceptance, qualification, certification, reuse, or flight-readiness requirements.
• Experience with stage testing, launch operations, mission simulations, or flight-data review.
• Experience writing data-analysis code or developing engine-system simulations.
• Experience building propulsion hardware or technical organizations in an early-stage company.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first year, you will have:

• Established a credible engine development, testing, and qualification roadmap.
• Taken clear technical ownership of the engine architecture and the direction of the propulsion program.
• Brought the engine’s P&IDs, tubing design, interfaces, operating sequences, and test configurations under disciplined configuration control.
• Defined and executed test campaigns that systematically retire the engine’s highest technical risks.
• Built an effective process for test readiness, console operations, data review, anomaly resolution, and rapid design iteration.
• Improved the team’s ability to turn test data into reliable technical decisions.
• Developed a clear path from individual engine testing to integrated stage testing and flight operations.
• Built confidence across the company that the engine has an accountable technical owner who understands the complete system and can deliver flight-ready hardware.

A meeting lands on your calendar

If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.