CFD Analyst III
$121,023–$169,432 year
On-siteHuntsville, Alabama, United States
Job Summary
Develop, execute, and maintain high-fidelity CFD models to predict thermal environments, heat flux distributions, and structural loading for combustion devices and turbomachinery components. Generate accurate flow field and temperature predictions to support component design and life assessments across steady-state and transient operating conditions. Derive CFD-based thermal and pressure boundary conditions for downstream finite element analysis teams and anchor model predictions to engine test data to drive model improvements. Collaborate with thermal and structural analysts to ensure integrated predictions and support failure mode evaluations including strength, fatigue, and creep. Perform trade studies to optimize cooling designs, combustion efficiency, and turbomachinery flow path performance while developing automation tools for mesh generation and post-processing. Provide technical mentorship and conduct peer reviews of CFD analyses across active engine programs.
Required Qualifications
- B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related engineering discipline
- Minimum of 5 years of industry experience performing CFD analysis in support of combustion systems, turbomachinery, or related engine systems
- Demonstrated proficiency with one or more commercial or open-source CFD codes (ANSYS Fluent, ANSYS CFX, Siemens Star-CCM+, OpenFOAM)
- Solid understanding of fluid mechanics, heat transfer
- Experience deriving and applying thermal and pressure boundary conditions for use in downstream finite element thermal and structural analyses
- Familiarity with mesh generation tools and best practices for complex 3D geometries
- Demonstrated experience using scripting or programming languages for pre/post-processing automation (Python, MATLAB, Fortran, VBA, or similar)
- Good communication skills and proficiency with engineering productivity tools
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum
- Must be able to lift 50 lbs
Desired Qualifications
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline with a focus on thermal/fluid sciences or computational methods
- Experience with conjugate heat transfer (CHT) simulations coupling fluid and solid thermal domains
- Familiarity with analysis tools such as ANSYS Workbench or Thermal Desktop to support integrated modeling workflows using CFD-derived loads
- Experience with reacting flow or combustion CFD modeling (e.g., premixed/non-premixed combustion, species transport)
- Experience with turbomachinery flow path analysis, including rotor-stator interactions, disk cavity flows, and seal leakage
- Prior job experience in thermal/fluid testing and instrumentation definition
- Demonstrated knowledge of phase change heat transfer
- Experience with Agentic AI
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