Senior Aerothermal Engineer

About Castelion

Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: one that focuses on short, iterative design cycles, rapid testing in development, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies for production at scale. We’re designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge and deter future conflicts.

Senior Aerothermal Engineer

Castelion is seeking an Aero/Thermal Engineer to lead the analysis, design, and optimization of aerodynamic and thermal systems for our hypersonic missile platforms. This role requires expertise in aerodynamics, thermal modeling, and materials to ensure performance and reliability in extreme environments. The ideal candidate will have a hands-on approach and a passion for tackling complex challenges in high-speed flight regimes.

Responsibilities

• Conduct aerodynamic and aerothermal analyses for missile systems, focusing on hypersonic and supersonic flight regimes.
• Develop and validate computational models for aerodynamic and aerothermal loads.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to integrate aero/thermal designs with structural, propulsion, and guidance systems.
• Support wind tunnel testing, thermal testing, and data analysis to validate designs and refine models.
• Lead trade studies to evaluate design alternatives for performance, manufacturability, and cost-effectiveness.
• Provide technical documentation, reports, and presentations to support design reviews and customer interactions.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 5 years of experience in aerodynamic and thermal analysis for aerospace applications.
• Proficiency in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools (e.g., ANSYS Fluent, Cart3D, Star-CCM , or similar).
• Strong knowledge of thermal analysis tools and methods (e.g., finite element analysis, heat transfer simulations).
• Experience with high-temperature materials and thermal protection systems.
• Familiarity with industry-standard software for design and analysis (e.g., MATLAB, Python, SolidWorks)

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Aerospace Engineering or a related field.
• Hands-on experience with hypersonic flight systems or high-speed aerodynamic testing.
• Expertise in multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) for aero/thermal systems.
• Familiarity with propulsion systems and their thermal integration.
• Experience with wind tunnel testing and instrumentation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a track record of innovative solutions.

Additional Requirements

• Ability to work onsite and support testing at remote facilities as needed.
• Willingness to travel occasionally to support test campaigns and customer engagements.

All employees are granted long-term stock incentives as part of their employment as Castelion. All employees receive access to comprehensive medial, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers three weeks of paid time off per year.

Leadership Qualities

Bias to Action and Creative Problem Solving. Desire and experience questioning assumptions in ways that lead to break through ideas that are ultimately implemented. Successfully bring in applicable processes/concepts/materials from other industries to achieve efficiency gains. Ability to personally resolve minor issues in development without requiring significant support.

High Commitment, High Initiative. A successful candidate will have a genuine passion for Castelion’s mission and consistently look for ways to contribute to the company’s technical goals and prevent hardware blockers. Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere. Strong sense of accountability and integrity.

Clear Communicator. Proactively communicates blockers. Trusted in previous roles to be voice of company with regulators, suppliers, gate keepers and customers. Capable of tactfully managing relationships with stakeholders to achieve company-desired outcomes without compromising relationships. Emails, IMs and verbal interactions are logical, drive clarity, and detailed enough to eliminate ambiguity.

ITAR Requirements:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.