Combustion Equipment Engineer (Liquid Rocket Engines)

Location: Parsdorf, Bavaria, Germany; occasional travel for test and launch operations

Company

hirify.global is a privately funded aerospace company developing sustainable launch solutions for small and medium-sized satellites and constellations in Low Earth Orbit.

What you will do

• Own the design and development of liquid rocket engine combustion equipment, including gas generators, preburners, injector heads, combustion chambers, ignition systems, and interfaces.
• Translate engine-level requirements into component requirements, operating envelopes, interface conditions, and technical budgets.
• Perform preliminary and detailed sizing using first-principles methods and analytical or numerical tools.
• Lead design trade-offs covering injector concepts, mixture distribution, pressure drop, combustion efficiency, stability, ignition, cooling, materials, and manufacturability.
• Plan, support, and evaluate component- and engine-level test campaigns, including instrumentation, predictions, data review, and model correlation with hot-fire results.
• Own the technical development roadmap, investigate combustion anomalies, define corrective actions, and coordinate with propulsion, controls, structures, thermal, manufacturing, and test teams.

Requirements

• MSc in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or a comparable technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Several years of experience in liquid rocket engine development, with significant responsibility for combustion device design, analysis, development, or testing.
• Hands-on experience with gas generators, preburners, or comparable high-performance liquid-propellant combustion devices.
• Strong understanding of combustion, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and liquid rocket propulsion, including injector or combustor sizing and hot-fire data interpretation.
• Experience taking a development roadmap through design reviews and into qualification, plus proficiency in Python, MATLAB, or a comparable programming language.
• Fluent English required; occasional travel for test and launch operations is expected.

Nice to have

• Experience with both gas generators and preburners across different liquid rocket engine architectures.
• Experience with combustion stability, acoustic analysis, ignition transients, or operability assessment.
• Experience with coaxial, impinging, swirl, or pintle injector technologies.
• Experience taking combustion hardware from initial sizing through manufacturing and hot-fire qualification.

Culture & Benefits

• Virtual company share program.
• 30 days of vacation.
• Company pension plan with a 20% employer contribution after the probation period.
• Subsidised lunches, a fully financed Deutschlandticket, and rental workwear with laundry service.
• Sponsored sports club membership and an individual learning budget after the probation period.
• Childcare allowance for non-school-age children.