Aerodynamics Analyst (Aerospace)

Location: Auckland, New Zealand; this role is based in the Auckland office

Company

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

What you will do

• Generate aerotables and characterize vehicle performance, including stability, control authority, loads, pressure distributions, and control-surface aerodynamics.
• Perform, validate, and document CFD analyses across hypersonic, transonic, and subsonic flow regimes.
• Characterize aerodynamic and heating environments, transients, separation events, plume interactions, base heating, PIFS, and impingement.
• Define re-entry architectures, including ballistic coefficients, concepts of operations, and compartment venting.
• Collaborate with design, test, and GNC engineers to iterate designs, define test requirements, support Neutron first-stage recovery, and demonstrate positive margins.
• Process and interpret ground-test and flight data, confirm MPE bounds, identify out-of-family results, and resolve sensor configuration issues.

Requirements

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a similar field.
• At least 1 year of industry experience, ideally in aerospace, automotive, or marine industries.
• Strong physics-based and first-principles approach to problem solving.
• Expertise with one or more CFD packages: Fluent, CFX, or STAR-CCM+.
• Engineering programming experience, especially with Python and packages such as NumPy, pandas, SciPy, and Matplotlib.
• Ability to deliver against changing deadlines in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment.

Nice to have

• Experience with NX CAD and Teamcenter or comparable tools for model interrogation and defeaturing.
• Experience selecting sensors and processing or interpreting accelerometer, strain-gauge, and thermocouple data.
• Experience with thermal modelling packages such as Thermal Desktop, THERMICA, or NX SST.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers.

Culture & Benefits

• Fast-paced environment focused on meaningful space missions and real hardware.
• Work involves close collaboration across analysis, design, test, and GNC engineering teams.
• High expectations for teamwork, determination, innovation, and delivery under pressure.
• New Zealand employment requires pre-employment background and nationality checks for access to ITAR-regulated equipment and data.
• Eligibility for the New Zealand role may depend on citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union, or a NATO member country, subject to ITAR requirements.