Team Lead - Thermofluids Analysis (Aerospace)

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Company

hirify.global is an end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, launch systems, and critical subsystems, including the Neutron large rocket.

What you will do

• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary Thermofluids Analysis team spanning aeroscience, thermal, and propellant analysis.
• Direct concept-level trades covering launch-system architecture, operations, performance, environments, and capabilities.
• Lead aerodynamic and CFD analysis across hypersonic, transonic, and subsonic regimes, including vehicle performance, heating environments, plumes, and re-entry architecture.
• Own thermal design for ground, flight, and in-space operations, including heat transfer simulations, thermal protection systems, insulation, HVAC, and payload integration.
• Own propellant delivery and management, tank pressurization, internal fluid-system CFD, residuals, utilization control, and reaction control system design.
• Collaborate with design and test engineers to define test requirements, demonstrate margins, and interpret ground-test and flight data.

Requirements

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a similar field.
• 5+ years of industry experience, ideally in aerospace, automotive, or marine industries.
• Experience with CFD packages such as Fluent, CFX, or STAR-CCM+.
• Experience with thermal modeling packages such as Thermal Desktop, THERMICA, or NX SST.
• Strong engineering programming skills, especially Python and packages including NumPy, pandas, SciPy, and Matplotlib.
• Ability to deliver against changing deadlines in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment.

Nice to have

• Experience selecting sensors and processing or interpreting data from accelerometers, strain gauges, and thermocouples.
• Experience with NX CAD and Teamcenter, particularly model interrogation and defeaturing for analysis.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on real hardware and meaningful space missions, including the Neutron rocket and its launch and test sites.
• Collaborative environment focused on teamwork, technical ownership, and delivering under pressure.
• Background and nationality checks are conducted before employment offers for New Zealand roles.
• Eligibility to access equipment and data regulated by United States ITAR is required; certain nationalities or dual nationalities may be ineligible.