Senior Development Engineer, Solid Rocket Motors

About the Role

Join an aerospace and defense propulsion team as a hands‑on engineer responsible for solid rocket motor development across multiple interceptor programs. You will help take motor designs from concept through testing and use test results to refine performance and reliability.

What You'll Do

• Drive motor architecture, grain design, and internal ballistics, including dual‑pulse designs.
• Collaborate with mechanical, propellant, and manufacturing engineers on motor designs and propellant development.
• Build motors and conduct ground and flight tests.
• Plan instrumentation, prepare test documentation, analyze results, and update performance models and designs.
• Develop concepts for motor sizes suited to new program and customer needs.

What We're Looking For

• Five to 15 years of solid rocket motor development experience, including at least five years of hands‑on work.
• Experience owning a motor from grain concept through ground testing; flight test experience is a plus.
• Background in composite‑propellant motor design and rapid development and test cycles.
• Fluency with internal‑ballistic and thermochemistry codes, CAD tools such as NX, and ground‑test planning and data reduction.
• Understanding of missile systems and experience meeting performance targets with practical materials and propellant approaches.
• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, or chemical engineering, physics, or a related field.
• Experience in a commercial or corporate engineering environment, ideally with a team developing solid rocket motors.
• Comfort using AI-assisted coding tools in day‑to‑day engineering work.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $180,000 to $220,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

This is an on‑site role in El Segundo, California.