About the Job
While other companies talk about it, we do it!
Rocket Lab’s Neutron team is responsible for bringing our new large rocket Neutron and its launch and test sites to life. From designing and testing Neutron’s structures and components, to firing up its new Archimedes engines, to setting up Neutron’s launch pads and test sites across the United States, joining the N...
We're looking for a Team Lead to head up our Thermofluids Analysis team, taking ownership of all thermodynamics and fluid mechanics across our launch systems.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership & Team Development
Manage, mentor, and develop your direct reports—providing coaching, timely feedback, and professional development opportunities while identifying skills gaps to drive cross-functional training
Ensure the successful delivery of key strategic engineering projects, negotiating resource and priority across the organization
Provide regular project status updates, conduct peer reviews, and produce qualification test levels through consistent application of approved margining approaches
Aeroscience
Generate aerotables and characterise vehicle performance—covering stability, control authority, loads, pressure distributions, and aerodynamic design of vehicle control surfaces
Perform, validate, and document CFD analyses of external flow across hypersonic, transonic and subsonic regimes, and characterise aerodynamic and heating environments, transients, and separation events
Model plumes and plume interactions (base heating, PIFS, impingement) and define re-entry architecture, including ballistic coefficients, ConOps, and compartment venting
Thermal
Own system thermal design across ground, flight, and in-space operations, including TPS response, compartment thermals, insulation, and component thermal modelling
Perform heat transfer simulations (conduction, convection, radiation) and characterise thermal environments, developing design guidelines and mitigations
Model HVAC and cavity conditioning (flow/temperature specification, pressure drop, flammability, cleanliness, humidity) and support payload integration and customer ITAs
Propellant
Own propellant delivery and management—covering temperatures and stratification, cavitation margin, transients, slosh, PMD design, settling, and in-space thermodynamics—and perform CFD of internal fluid systems (compressible and incompressible flow)
Address depletion, residuals, and utilisation control, and own tank pressurisation, including pressurant budgets, in-tank thermodynamics, and autogenous system sizing
Design RCS systems, including N2 budget, thruster specification, and flow modelling of valves and lines
Analysis & Data
Work closely with design and test engineers to iterate design concepts, determine test requirements, and demonstrate positive margins through numerical analysis, and physical test
Process and interpret ground test and flight data—confirming MPE bounds, detecting out-of-family results, and resolving sensor configuration issues
Required Skills & Abilities
A degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering or similar field
5+ years industry experience, ideally from the Aerospace, Automotive, or Marine industries
A keen physics and first principles-based approach to problem solving
Experience with one or more industry standard CFD packages: Fluent, CFX, STAR-CCM+
Experience with one or more industry standard thermal modelling packages: Thermal Desktop, THERMICA, NX SST
Expertise in engineering programming, especially using Python (including Python packages numpy, pandas, scipy, matplotlib, etc.)
Demonstrated ability executing to changing deadlines in a high-pressure and fast-paced work environment
Experience with sensor selection and data post-processing/ interpretation (accelerometers, strain gauges, thermocouples etc.)
Experience using NX CAD and Teamcenter packages (or comparable industry standard packages) with emphasis on model interrogation and defeaturing for subsequent analysis
Experience in mentoring junior engineers
