R&D Aerospace Engineer

Aerospace Mid to Senior, research and productization 4-7 years

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SpaceX

Boeing

Lockheed Martin

Blue Origin

Northrop Grumman

Rocket Lab

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The job description

Tech stack. MATLAB/Python, rapid prototyping, wind tunnel and lab test rigs, CFD/FEA, DOE software, patent databases, technology readiness frameworks

About the role

You will join the advanced concepts team of an aerospace company exploring the vehicles and technologies that fly in 10 to 20 years: novel configurations, propulsion breakthroughs, and autonomous systems. The team owns the innovation pipeline from whiteboard through flying demonstrators. This role matters because aerospace leadership is won in R&D hangars a decade before it shows up in product lines, and your disciplined experimentation separates the configurations that will fly from the ones that only look good in renderings. You will balance the freedom to explore with the discipline to decide, because research without decisions is expensive curiosity. Your experimental designs will ruthlessly identify the critical unknowns first, testing the riskiest assumptions before investing in refinement. You will document everything, including the failures, because in R&D the negative result that kills a bad concept early is as valuable as the positive one. You will develop the skill of technical storytelling: translating complex results into clear recommendations that executives and program managers can act on, with uncertainty quantified honestly rather than hidden.

What you will achieve

Mature 2 to 3 advanced concepts per year from idea to subscale demonstrator with measured performance against targets
Build flying or wind-tunnel test articles that generate decision-grade data: instrumented, repeatable, and honestly reported
Cut concept evaluation time by 30 percent through stage-gate criteria, kill metrics, and rapid prototyping sprints
Own technology readiness assessments with evidence-based TRL ratings that program managers can trust
Drive IP creation with invention disclosures and patent filings on concepts worth protecting
Accelerate concept maturation by building modular test articles that allow rapid configuration changes between test campaigns

What you will bring

Must-haves

4 to 7 years of experience in aerospace R&D, advanced design, or flight sciences research roles
Strong first-principles aerodynamics, structures, or propulsion fundamentals with rapid modeling ability
Hands-on prototyping skills: designing, building, instrumenting, and flying test articles
Proficiency with analysis tools (CFD, FEA, or flight dynamics) for concept evaluation
Ability to design experiments that discriminate between competing concepts efficiently
Familiarity with technology readiness levels and structured innovation processes
Intellectual honesty: you kill weak concepts early with data and document the learning

Nice-to-haves

PhD in aerospace engineering or related field
Patent authorship in aerospace technologies
Experience with government research programs (AFRL, NASA, DARPA) or SBIR/STTR
Background in multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO)
Experience transitioning technology from laboratory to flight program environments