Rotorcraft Design Applications Engineer

CFD Research Corporation is seeking multidisciplinary design experts in rotary-wing and advanced air vehicle design to support the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Center’s Technology Development Directorate (TDD).  This opportunity places you at the forefront of Army Aviation research and technology development using state-of-the-art modeling tools and design resources.

You will develop new modeling tools and integrate existing computational tools to support rotorcraft conceptual, preliminary, and detailed component design activities for the Conceptual Design and Assessment (CD&A) branch.  You will apply physics-based conceptual design and analysis tools to estimate aircraft performance and perform trade studies of future air vehicle concepts and exploration design initiatives.

Responsibilities:

• Assess air vehicle performance and weights against operational requirements under the mentorship of senior engineers.
• Develop and validate new computational tools to enhance the design process of existing and novel air vehicle configurations.
• Conduct trade studies with TDD stakeholders to analyze requirements, assess operational impacts of design options, and recommend design trades to improve aircraft effectiveness and cost.
• Use government-standard tools, such as NASA Design and Analysis of Rotorcraft (NDARC), for aircraft modeling and performance assessment.
• Integrate and automate modeling tools for design of experiments and design space exploration.
• Assess current technologies in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams to deliver system-level assessments of component technologies.

Required Qualifications:

• B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field from an accredited college or university.
• Minimum of 4 years of experience performing design of crewed or uncrewed air systems, including aircraft performance and weight estimation.
• Experience developing aircraft designs and estimating performance using modeling and simulation tools.
• Experience conducting aircraft trade studies to define and explore trade space.
• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance.
• Must be able to travel up to 10% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications:

• M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.
• Ability to work independently and support technical projects with minimal oversight.
• Familiarity of rotor conceptual design process.
• Experience using NDARC and workflow environments such as Air Vehicle Integrated Design Environment (AIDEN) and Aircraft/Army Light Performance Integration Environment (ALPINE).
• Proficiency with OpenVSP and OpenMDAO.

Location:  This role is full-time based at Redstone Arsenal, in the Huntsville, AL area, and is 100% onsite.  Remote and/or part-time employment may be considered for exceptional candidates.