Senior Thermal Structures Engineer

Advanced Reentry Technologies Who We Are: Inversion is an aerospace and defense company pioneering advanced reentry technology to enable next-generation capabilities from space. By combining high-performance materials, precision aerodynamics, and mission-driven autonomy, Inversion is transforming reentry into an operational capability for an entirely new class of missions. The company’s highly maneuverable reentry spacecraft, Arc, is designed for rapid global cargo delivery, hypersonic testing, and other national security missions that require precise, controlled flight through the atmosphere. Arc creates an entirely new transportation domain, unlocking unprecedented speed and global reach. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Inversion designs, manufactures, and integrates its spacecraft under one roof, enabling the company to move rapidly from concept to flight. The company is backed by leading investors including Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, with customers across the U.S. government and commercial space industry. What You'll Do: A heat shield is where the harsh reentry thermal environment meets structural reality — materials want to expand, attachments must not let them fail, and parts must be manufacturable at scale. As the Senior Thermal Structures Engineer, you will own the detailed design of heat shield and hot structure hardware from concept through flight, with responsibility for both the design and analysis of a key subsystem for a maneuverable reentry vehicle. In this role, you will: Own the detailed mechanical design of heat shield components and assemblies, including TPS panels, hot substructure, attachments, and interfaces to the vehicle Perform structural and thermal-structural analysis of your designs, from hand calculations through detailed finite element analysis Design for environments where thermally induced strains are a primary driver, managing CTE mismatch, thermal gradients, and constrained expansion across joints and interface Work with materials and manufacturing engineers to design components that can actually be fabricated, machined, and inspected in high-temperature composite material systems Define and support structural and thermal-structural testing to verify your designs, from element-level tests through qualification Develop your own part and assembly models, drawings, and GD&T, carrying designs from concept through released engineering Required Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent experience in a related field Typically, 5+ years of experience in the mechanical or structural design of aerospace hardware Experience performing structural analysis of your own designs, including both classical hand analysis and finite element analysis (e.g., Nastran, Abaqus, Ansys) Experience with thermal-structural analysis, including thermally induced stress and deflection Strong fundamentals in…