Senior Powerpack Engineer

Responsibilities

• Bring a culture of creativity to every design challenge. Own each solution or improvement with true accountability, seeing it through to completion.
• Own the mechanical design and development of turbopump hardware from concept through hot fire testing and flight: inducers, impellers, diffusers, volutes, turbine stages, dynamic seals, bearing supports, pump housings and assemblies.
• Lead architecture trades on the pump and turbine, including shaft speed, stage count, specific speed, bearing and seal arrangement, and how each of those choices lands against the engine cycle.
• Integrate hydro, aero, structures, rotordynamics, secondary flow, thermal, and bearing constraints into a single design definition the rest of the team can build to.
• Perform and direct analysis: hand calculations, FEA, rotordynamic models, secondary flow and axial thrust balance, and life prediction for high-stress, high-cycle hardware.
• Own the verification argument for your hardware. Decide what closes by analysis and what has to close on the stand, write the plan, and see both through.
• Select materials and manufacturing processes for cryogenic, high-speed, high-stress service, including castings, forgings, and additive parts.
• Generate detailed component and assembly drawings, design definitions, process specifications, and interface control documents.
• Drive hardware through fabrication and build: vendor engagement, first article review, and nonconformance disposition.
• Define and execute component and engine test campaigns. Author instrumentation requests, support test days in real time, reduce the data, and compare it against prediction.
• Lead root cause investigations on turbopump anomalies and carry the corrective action into both the design and the build paper.
• Control configuration and pedigree across build, test, and refurbishment, including the inspection criteria that gate hardware for reuse.
• Work directly with machinists and technicians on the floor to improve producibility and keep iteration fast.
• Review the design work of Level I, Level II, and Level III engineers and raise the standard of the team's design definitions.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, or related engineering field.
• Strong grounding in turbomachinery fundamentals: hydrodynamic and aerodynamic performance, rotordynamics, secondary flow, and structural life.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD and in producing released, manufacturable design definitions with sound geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), and tolerance stack-ups.
• Experience with structural and thermal analysis, both FEA and hand calculations, validated against test data.
• Experience selecting materials and manufacturing processes for high-stress, high-cycle applications.
• Hands-on experience taking hardware from design through build and test.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of turbomachinery or turbopump experience.
• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Aerospace, Mechanical, or related engineering field.
• Experience with liquid rocket engine turbopumps or reusable propulsion systems.
• Experience taking a turbopump from a clean sheet through first hot fire.
• Experience mentoring early career engineers and reviewing their design releases.
• Experience with adjacent rotating machinery. Gas turbines, industrial pumps, compressors, and turbochargers all build fundamentals that carry over to turbopump design.
• Experience with detailed design and analysis of fluid components (inducers, impellers, diffusers, volutes, turbines, and secondary flow), dynamic seals, and rotor support structures.
• Experience with rotordynamics, bearing selection, and axial thrust balance on high-speed rotors.
• Experience with cryogenic hardware design and cryogenic material behavior.
• Experience leading root cause investigations on hardware you owned and carrying the corrective action through to closure.
• Experience with additive manufacturing, castings, and forgings for rotating hardware.
• Experience at a fast-moving, hardware-focused startup or early-stage program.

Compensation and Benefits

• The salary range for this position is $165,000 – $210,000 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.
• Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.
• Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Paid time off
• 10 paid holidays per calendar year
• Paid parental leave
• Relocation assistance if applicable
• Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks

ITAR Requirements

• Export Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants 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 ITAR here .

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