Combustion Engineer

Here at The Exploration Company, we are building innovative aerospace technologies that advance the future of space transportation.

The heart of a spacecraft lies in its engine, and that's why we, at The Exploration Company, are dedicated to developing our own cutting-edge Propulsion Systems ensuring the highest level of efficiency and reliability in our space endeavours.

We are seeking a talented Combustion Engineer to join our Future Project division. As a key member of our engineering team, you will be responsible for contributing to designing, analyzing, and optimizing combustion devices for cryogenic rocket engines.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide support to global combustor fluidic system development through application of both theory and/or CFD.

• Drive and/or contribute to injector design and optimisation against combustor requirements and design intent using theory and/or CFD.

• Support definition of instrumentation for hot-fire testing and assist with post-test data interpretation and CFD/model correlation.

• Reduce and analyse hot-fire test data to derive performance and combustion-stability metrics, and maintain associated data processing tools

• Support design reviews with clear technical justification of analysis methods, assumptions, and margins.

What we would love to see from you

• Minimum of a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline.

• 3+ years of relevant/equivalent experience in combustion, propulsion, or reacting-flow engineering.

• Solid foundation in bi-liquid rocket combustion processes.

• Strong background in reacting-flow CFD (e.g. ANSYS, OpenFOAM, Converge) using RANS and/or LES

• Strong scripting and data-analysis ability in Python or similar

• Exposure to liquid rocket injector CFD.

• Experience with combustion of cryogenic propellants.

• Familiarity with combustion instability, thermoacoustics, or uncertainty quantification is beneficial.

• Experience supporting or participating in hot-fire test campaigns is beneficial.

Skills and Behaviours

• Structured and methodical approach to problem solving.

• Demonstrated rigour: checks reference calculations, documents assumptions, and treats a discrepancy between prediction and test as a problem to be solved rather than dismissed.

• Ability to work under technical uncertainty and iterate models as test data becomes available.

• Clear written and verbal communication of assumptions, methods, and conclusions.

• Comfort working in cross-disciplinary teams across thermo-mechanical, systems, and test engineering.

• Strong analytical rigor and attention to detail.

• Demonstrates behaviors consistent with The Exploration Company's core values of Mission, Vision, Integrity, Excellence, and Teamwork.

Why you should join us!

What makes us special here at The Exploration Company and why we think you will enjoy working here is:

• We’re Agile - we make decisions fast whilst keeping our goals and systems in mind

• We’re Open and Collaborative - we are transparent about risks and obstacles, so that we can cooperate to overcome them

• We have a lot of Fun - we refuel our energy knowing we are democratising space. It’s a wonderful and rare opportunity, are YOU up for the challenge?

We'd love to hear from you if you wish to be a part of our journey. Please submit your CV now for immediate consideration and we will be in touch shortly.

The Exploration Company is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.

All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check, which will be subject to the country, role, and project you applied for. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and agree that any offer of employment may be conditional upon successful condition of this check. The Exploration Company partners with Zinc Work Limited located in the UK (Zinc), a third-party provider, to ensure this process as efficient and transparent as possible.

If applicable, you will receive an email from Zinc upon acceptance of your offer with a link to a secure portal where you can provide the required information to Zinc.