Principal Aerospace Engineer - Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis, and Optimization

Firestorm Labs is seeking a Principal Aerospace Engineer to lead the development of an in-house Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis, and Optimization (MDAO) tool. This tool will integrate aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, and other discipline models into a unified design environment for next-generation unmanned aerial systems. The role involves architecting the framework, building discipline modules, and executing trade studies and design optimizations to shape vehicle designs.

Responsibilities

• Architect, develop, and maintain Firestorm’s MDAO framework (e.g., built on OpenMDAO or a comparable environment), including the underlying data structures, solver strategies, and workflow orchestration.
• Develop and integrate discipline analysis modules — aerodynamics (vortex-lattice, panel, and CFD-based), propulsion performance decks, structures and mass properties, stability & control, and mission/performance analysis.
• Build parametric geometry pipelines (e.g., OpenVSP or CAD-integrated) that enable rapid exploration of unconventional UAS configurations.
• Implement and apply optimization methods including gradient-based and gradient-free optimization, design of experiments, and surrogate modeling.
• Validate tool outputs against wind tunnel, flight test, and higher-fidelity analysis data, and quantify model uncertainty.
• Execute vehicle-level trade studies and sizing analyses to support new product development and customer-driven configuration changes.
• Work cross-functionally with airframe, propulsion, manufacturing, and autonomy teams to ensure the tool reflects real-world design constraints, including additive manufacturing considerations.
• Establish best practices for version control, testing, documentation, and continuous integration of engineering software.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering or a related field with 8+ years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree with 6+ years.
• Strong foundation in aircraft conceptual/preliminary design, aerodynamics, flight performance, and stability & control.
• Proficiency in Python and experience developing engineering analysis software beyond one-off scripts.
• Hands-on experience with an MDAO framework (e.g., OpenMDAO, ModelCenter, Dakota, SUAVE) or demonstrated experience building multidisciplinary analysis pipelines.
• Experience with numerical optimization methods and design space exploration.
• Ability to operate in fast-paced, iterative development environments.
• U.S. Person status (Citizen or Permanent Resident) required due to ITAR regulations.

Nice to have

• Master’s or PhD in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on MDAO, aircraft design, or applied optimization.
• Experience with tools such as OpenVSP, AVL, XFOIL, SU2, Fluent, STAR-CCM+, or NASTRAN.
• Experience with surrogate modeling, uncertainty quantification, or gradient-based optimization with analytic derivatives.
• Prior experience designing small UAS, especially Group 2–3 unmanned aircraft.
• Familiarity with design for additive manufacturing.
• Experience with software engineering practices: Git, CI/CD, unit testing, and containerized or HPC compute environments.

Benefits

• We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plans
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan to invest in your long-term retirement goals
• Equity grants for new hires
• Unlimited PTO
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in July & December.
• Generous Parental Leave
• Lifestyle Spending Account
• FSA
• DCFSA
• HSA
• Hospital Indemnity insurance
• Critical Illness insurance
• Accident insurance
• Basic Life/AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance, 100% covered by Firestorm. Plus, the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your family.
• Mental Health Resources: We provide free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more. Additional work-life services, such as free legal and financial support, are available to you as well.