Lead Hypersonic Re-Entry Engineer

Hop Aero is a venture-backed startup building rockets that deliver cargo anywhere on Earth in minutes.Our mission is to enable resilient global logistics to protect and improve our way of life.Our founding team has prior experience founding a satellite startup and taking it to orbit, launching 20+ Falcon 9 missions at SpaceX, and leading engineering teams at some of the world’s most advanced aerospace organizations. The company is well-capitalized through venture funding and government contracts.

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About the roleWe’re hiring a Lead Hypersonic Reentry Engineer to own the analysis, design, and development of Hop Aero’s atmospheric reentry capability.
This is a foundational technical role spanning hypersonic aerodynamics, aerothermal environments, thermal protection, trajectory trades, vehicle design, testing, and flight-hardware development. You will help define how our vehicles survive high-speed atmospheric flight and repeated reentry while remaining practical, manufacturable, and rapidly reusable.
We’re looking for a broad reentry engineer who can operate across disciplines. You should be comfortable building first-principles models, running CFD, evaluating TPS concepts, working with structures and GNC teams, designing experiments, and using test data to close the loop between simulation and real hardware.
This is not purely a CFD or thermal-analysis role. You will be expected to make vehicle-level engineering decisions, own hardware and test programs, and help take the reentry system from early analysis through flight.
Job DescriptionServe as the responsible engineer for hypersonic reentry, aerothermal environments, and thermal-protection systemsDefine vehicle aerodynamic and heating environments across hypersonic entry, atmospheric deceleration, and descentDevelop first-principles and numerical models for hypersonic aerodynamics, convective heating, radiative heating, and conductive heat transferPerform CFD and other high-fidelity analysis for high-speed atmospheric flightDevelop aerodynamic and aerothermal databases for use by GNC, structures, propulsion, and vehicle-design teamsSupport trajectory and vehicle-shape trades to balance range, heating, stability, control authority, and structural loadsEvaluate and select TPS architectures, materials, coatings, insulation systems, and attachment conceptsPerform coupled aero-thermal-structural analysis to inform vehicle geometry and hardware designAssess thermal margins, hot spots, shock interactions, boundary-layer effects, uncertainties, and off-nominal environmentsDefine and execute material, coupon, component, and subsystem test campaignsWork directly with suppliers and manufacturing teams to develop practical, repeatable reentry hardwareCorrelate analytical models with ground-test and flight-test dataDevelop instrumentation strategies for temperature, heat flux, pressure, strain, and related diagnosticsSupport wind-tunnel, arc-jet, high-enthalpy, and flight-test campaigns as applicableTranslate reentry environments into requirements for structures, propulsion, avionics, GNC, and vehicle systemsOwn hypersonic reentry technical risks through design reviews, test-readiness reviews, and flight-readiness reviewsWork in person with the team at our shop in Orange, CA
Requirements5-10 years of relevant experience in hypersonics, reentry, high-speed aerodynamics, aerothermal engineering, thermal protection, or closely related fieldsStrong understanding of compressible flow, hypersonic aerodynamics, heat transfer, boundary layers, shock interactions, and high-temperature gas dynamicsExperience modeling aerodynamic and aerothermal environments for high-speed vehiclesExperience with CFD and numerical methods for hypersonic or thermally challenging flowsExperience translating analytical results into vehicle-level design decisionsUnderstanding of reentry trajectory trades, vehicle stability, aerodynamic loading, and thermal constraintsUnderstanding of thermal-protection materials, insulation systems, structural heating, and thermal interfacesAbility to plan experiments, interpret aerodynamic and thermal test data, and correlate models against real measurementsAbility to work directly with GNC, structures, propulsion, manufacturing, materials, and test teamsWillingness to be hands-on with test articles and flight hardwareMust be a US Person under ITAR - Hop Aero will not sponsor visas for this role. xzbcwsv
Nice to haveExperience with atmospheric reentry vehicles, hypersonic vehicles, launch vehicles, missiles, or spacecraftExperience developing reusable reentry or thermal-protection systemsExperience with arc-jet, plasma, wind-tunnel, shock-tunnel, or other high-enthalpy testingExperience with ceramic, metallic, ablative, or composite TPS materialsExperience with coupled CFD/FEA or conjugate heat-transfer analysisExperience developing aerodynamic or aerothermal databases across large flight envelopesExperience with hypersonic trajectory optimization or vehicle-shape optimizationExperience taking reentry hardware from analysis through ground test and flightExperience on DoD or U.S. Air Force high-speed flight programsPrior experience at a fast-moving aerospace or hardware startup
What we offerCompetitive salary and meaningful stock optionsHealthcare, office meals & snacksDirect collaboration with founders & engineers with rich flight heritageSignificant technical ownership from day oneThe opportunity to define the hypersonic reentry architecture of a new class of reusable vehicleFast upward mobility as the company grows
Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, we’d still love to hear from you. Greatness looks different in every one of us - and we need the best tackling this problem.