Senior Thermal & TPS Integration EngineerWe are seeking multiple Senior Thermal & TPS Integration Engineers to design and deliver thermal protection solutions for Castelion's long-range hypersonic strike vehicles. These roles are critical to ensuring vehicle survivability and performance in extreme aerothermal environments. You will work hands-on with multidisciplinary engineering teams to design, analyze, build, and validate TPS across the vehicle, including heat shields, control surface protection, and internal thermal insulation systems in a fast-paced, hardware-driven environment.
Responsibilities- Design and develop TPS across the vehicle, including heat shields, acreage TPS, and leading-edge protection systems
- Design TPS for control surfaces, including elevons, seals, and moving interface solutions that maintain performance under thermal and mechanical loads
- Develop internal thermal protection solutions, including insulators, blankets, and standoff systems to protect avionics and structures
- Lead the architecture and integration of TPS with primary structure, mechanisms, and subsystems, including attachment methods, gaps, and strain isolation
- Perform thermal and thermal-structural analyses to ensure performance under extreme aerothermal heating and transient environments
- Work closely with structures, materials, aerothermal, GNC, and manufacturing teams to ensure seamless system integration
- Develop and evaluate materials and configurations, including ceramics, carbon-carbon, ablatives, and insulating materials
- Conduct tolerance analysis and assess thermal expansion, deformation, and interface behavior
- Support prototyping, assembly, and hardware bring-up, including troubleshooting and root cause analysis of TPS performance issues
- Define and execute qualification and environmental test plans, including arc-jet, furnace, and flight testing
- Optimize designs for mass, thermal performance, durability, and manufacturability
- Mentor junior engineers and contribute to best practices in TPS design and integration
- Partner closely with program leadership to make technical trades aligned with mission success
Basic Qualifications- Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or related field
- 5+ years of experience in thermal protection system design, analysis, and validation for aerospace or high-temperature applications
- Strong background in aerothermal environments, heat transfer, and high-temperature materials
- Experience designing TPS for flight vehicles, including heat shields, control surfaces, or internal insulation systems
- Familiarity with TPS materials such as ceramics, carbon-carbon, ablatives, and insulating blankets
- Experience with seals, gaps, and interface design in high-temperature, moving or constrained systems
- Proficiency in thermal and structural analysis tools (e.g., ANSYS, MATLAB, or equivalent)
- Experience with high-temperature testing methods (e.g., arc-jet, furnace, or similar)
- Experience with hardware build, test, and troubleshooting in a lab or flight hardware environment
- Strong problem-solving mindset, thriving in a fast-paced, hardware-rich, high flight cadence environment
Castelion offers a generous benefits package. Please refer to the bottom of our Careers page for more details.
Other Duties Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
Additional Eligibility Requirements This position may require access to classified information or restricted U.S. Government sites, systems, or information, as determined by the Company and/or applicable U.S. Government requirements. If the position is so designated, your employment in the role may be contingent upon your ability to obtain and maintain the required U.S. Government security clearance or other government authorization, and to satisfy any citizenship or other eligibility requirements imposed by applicable law, regulation, executive order, or government contract requirements. You will be notified if and when such requirements apply.
