Principal Aerodynamics Engineer

About Varda

Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX Blue Origin major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures Lux Capital Founders Fund Caffeinated Capital General Catalyst and Also Capital.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo California where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles equipment and materials are built integrated and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington DC and Huntsville AL (coming soon).

Join Varda and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

Varda was founded under the belief manufacturing in zero-gravity is critical to unlocking new materials. We are actively working on spacecraft and technologies to make this possible and expand humanitys manufacturing capabilities.

The ideal candidate will lead the aerodynamic development of Vardas next reentry vehicle from rarefied entry to hypersonic maneuvering and subsonic terminal approach. The candidate must have experience with: 6-DOF reentry vehicle dynamics hypersonic computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and running wind tunnel campaigns. The ideal candidate should have been involved in the aerodynamic development of a currently-flying vehicle from cradle to grave.

Basic Qualifications:

• BS in an engineering of physics & 5 years of relevant industry experience
• Significant contribution to aerodynamic development of a hypersonic vehicle that has flown or is expected to fly in the next 5 years
• Managed an aerodynamic or flight program that collected data from: test CFD flight and other sources
• Experience running CFD and DSMC simulations of hypersonic and subsonic flows: (Fun3D Laura DPLR US3D Sparta DAC CBAero)
• Comfortable building structured and unstructured meshes in Pointwise
• Experience with Matlab or Python languages
• Experience with wind tunnel campaigns
• Experience developing an aerodynamic database for a vehicle from scratch
• Basic technical breadth across other disciplines (avionics software GNC etc.).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with an aptitude for interdisciplinary technical communication.
• Must be able to obtain a security clearance

Preferred Experience:

• MS or PhD degrees in Aerospace or Mechanical engineering specializing in aerodynamics or fluid mechanics
• Familiarity with modeling vehicle dynamics in POST2 or similar tools
• Experience sizing ablative or non-ablative TPS
• Experience with flight reconstruction and post-flight performance evaluations.
• Experience with flight testing of new aerodynamic features and concepts.
• Hold a secret or TS clearance.

Pay Range

• Principal Aerodynamics Engineer: $192500.00 - $221375.00/per year
• This role ison-sitein El Segundo CA
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills education level experience level and job performance
• You will be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

• Varda like all employers must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. At present some of our technology to which employees have access requires a license to be exported to individuals other than U.S. Persons as defined in U.S. export regulations. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items our current policy is to only hire U.S. persons who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license.

  US person means: U.S. citizen U.S. lawful permanent resident or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e. individual admitted to the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum in the U.S.)

  Learn more about the ITAR here.

Benefits