Thermal Protection System Instrumentation Engineer

Job Description:

Position Overview

Analytical Mechanics Associates (AMA) is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Thermal Protection System (TPS) Instrumentation Engineer to support NASA under the Aircraft Systems and Spaceflight Engineering Support Services (ASSESS) contract at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in Moffett Field, California. The selected candidate will work full-time on-site within the Thermal Protection Materials (TSM) Branch, part of the Entry Systems and Technology Division at NASA ARC.

The Thermal Protection Materials Branch develops and evaluates materials, instrumentation, and predictive capabilities for atmospheric entry, descent, and landing applications. This position will support the development, qualification, test, and application of instrumentation used to characterize TPS materials and flight systems in extreme aerothermal environments.

The successful candidate will contribute to the design, analysis, fabrication, calibration, testing, and data interpretation of TPS instrumentation and TPS test articles. The work may support ground testing in arc-jet and laboratory facilities, technology maturation, flight-instrumentation development, and analysis of data from relevant thermal-protection-system test and flight environments.

This is an opportunity for an experienced engineer or technical specialist ( U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents only ) to work closely with a multidisciplinary team of materials scientists, experimentalists, instrumentation engineers, computational modelers, technicians, contractors, and NASA researchers. The ideal candidate will bring demonstrated experience with TPS sensors, high-temperature testing, arc-jet test operations, instrumentation qualification, and technical leadership.

About the Work

NASA entry systems rely on thermal protection systems to protect spacecraft and scientific payloads from severe heating during atmospheric entry. Instrumentation embedded within or integrated with TPS materials provides critical measurements of heat flux, temperature, pressure, recession, optical response, and other physical quantities needed to understand TPS performance and improve future entry-system designs.

The TPS Instrumentation Engineer will support the development and application of instrumentation for ground testing and flight systems. Work may include the development of sensor concepts; mechanical, thermal, and electrical design; fabrication and assembly of instrumented TPS test articles; calibration and environmental testing; test planning; arc-jet test execution; data acquisition; data processing; and technical reporting.

Assignments may support a range of current and future NASA planetary-entry, Earth-return, lunar-return, and other high-speed atmospheric-entry applications. The role may also support investigations of TPS performance, material qualification activities, and instrumentation technology development.

Position Details

• Location: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

• Work arrangement: Full-time, on-site attendance required

• Travel: Occasional travel may be required

• Compensation: $150,000 – $220,000, commensurate with education level

• Eligibility: This position requires U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Residency due to export control requirements.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities will vary based on program and project needs and may include:

• Design, analyze, develop, fabricate, assemble, test, and document TPS instrumentation and instrumented material test articles for ground and flight applications.

• Develop and apply sensors for measurement of relevant TPS and aerothermal quantities, such as heat flux, temperature, pressure, optical response, material recession, and related thermal or physical phenomena.

• Support the design and maturation of instrumentation systems for thermal protection materials, entry vehicles, planetary probes, and other spacecraft operating in high-temperature aerothermal environments.

• Develop mechanical, thermal, electrical, and data-acquisition approaches for TPS instrumentation, including sensor integration into ablative, insulating, or structural thermal-protection materials.

• Prepare engineering analyses, drawings, test plans, work instructions, calibration procedures, instrumentation layouts, and technical documentation.

• Plan and prepare arc-jet, plasma, environmental, calibration, and laboratory test activities for TPS sensors, materials, and instrumented test articles.

• Serve as a technical lead, test lead, principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or responsible engineer for assigned ground-test campaigns, as appropriate.

• Coordinate with facility personnel, researchers, technicians, project teams, and external test providers to define test objectives, instrumentation requirements, schedules, test configurations, and data needs.

• Support execution of tests in arc-jet facilities, laboratory test rigs, environmental chambers, calibration systems, and third-party test facilities.

• Develop, conduct, and document calibration and qualification testing for TPS sensors and instrumented hardware.

• Evaluate sensor performance, uncertainty, survivability, repeatability, and measurement quality under relevant thermal, mechanical, electrical, vacuum, pressure, and environmental conditions.

• Analyze data from instrumentation systems, including thermal, optical, recession, pressure, heat-flux, and other relevant test measurements.

• Develop or maintain data-reduction, analysis, visualization, and reporting workflows using tools such as MATLAB, Python, LabVIEW, or comparable engineering software.

• Compare experimental data with engineering analyses, thermal models, material-response predictions, and other relevant simulation results.

• Support troubleshooting, repair, modification, and improvement of instrumentation, test hardware, data-acquisition systems, and laboratory equipment.

• Collaborate with TPS materials researchers and computational modelers to define measurement needs and interpret experimental results.

• Support development and qualification of TPS materials through well-designed instrumentation and high-quality experimental data.

• Prepare technical reports, presentations, conference papers, journal publications, and project briefings, as appropriate.

• Communicate test results, technical risks, schedules, recommendations, and project status to task leads, program management, and multidisciplinary project teams.

• Participate in technical meetings, design reviews, readiness reviews, teleconferences, and other project activities as required.

• Support new project development, proposal preparation, and technology-roadmap activities when opportunities arise.

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a closely related technical discipline.

• Significant relevant engineering or research experience in thermal protection systems, high-temperature instrumentation, aerospace test engineering, aerothermodynamics, thermal sciences, materials testing, or a related field.

• Demonstrated experience designing, developing, integrating, testing, or analyzing instrumentation for demanding thermal, mechanical, or aerothermal environments.

• Experience planning, preparing, conducting, or supporting high-temperature ground tests, such as arc-jet, plasma, furnace, radiant-heating, laser-heating, environmental, thermal-vacuum, or comparable tests.

• Experience with sensor calibration, instrumentation characterization, environmental testing, and/or qualification of engineering hardware.

• Experience processing, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting experimental data.

• Knowledge of heat transfer, thermal systems, thermal protection systems, materials behavior, or aerothermal testing relevant to atmospheric entry applications.

• Ability to develop clear test plans, procedures, reports, presentations, and other technical documentation.

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, organizational, and problem-solving skills.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Ability to work independently, take ownership of technical tasks, and contribute effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.

• Ability to work full-time on-site at NASA Ames Research Center.

• Ability to travel occasionally, as required.

Desired Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, or a closely related field, with an emphasis in thermal sciences, heat transfer, aerothermodynamics, instrumentation, or materials.

• Ten or more years of relevant professional experience supporting TPS, entry systems, high-temperature materials, aerospace instrumentation, or related technology-development programs.

• Experience developing or applying flight instrumentation for spacecraft, entry vehicles, planetary probes, or flight-test systems.

• Experience leading subsystem-level instrumentation development, including requirements definition, sensor selection, design, integration, test, qualification, and data analysis.

• Experience with developmental flight instrumentation, lifecycle flight instrumentation, or other flight-relevant TPS measurement systems.

• Demonstrated experience serving as an arc-jet test principal investigator, co-principal investigator, test director, responsible engineer, or equivalent technical role.

• Experience with arc-jet test planning, test-article design, facility coordination, test execution, and post-test data analysis.

• Experience with TPS materials and systems, including ablative materials, insulating materials, heat shields, backshell systems, or planetary-entry thermal-protection applications.

• Experience designing and applying heat-flux gauges, radiometers, thermocouples, recession sensors, pressure sensors, optical sensors, embedded instrumentation, or similar measurement systems.

• Familiarity with the challenges of integrating sensors into TPS materials, including survivability, bonding, wiring, thermal gradients, packaging, sealing, signal conditioning, and measurement uncertainty.

• Experience designing or evaluating TPS material models and instrumented test articles.

• Experience with mechanical design and analysis tools, such as SolidWorks, AutoCAD, ANSYS, COMSOL, SINDA/FLUINT, or comparable tools.

• Experience with test automation, data acquisition, and instrumentation-control software, including LabVIEW or similar systems.

• Experience using MATLAB, Python, FORTRAN, or other engineering/scientific programming languages for data reduction, modeling, automation, or analysis.

• Experience with dimensional metrology, photogrammetry, optical measurement, 3D scanning, computed tomography, or other post-test inspection and characterization methods.

• Hands-on experience with fabrication, assembly, electrical wiring, sensor repair, laboratory hardware, machining coordination, or experimental-test support.

• Experience working with government, academic, commercial, and contractor teams on complex aerospace research and development programs.

• Record of technical publications, conference presentations, patents, flight hardware contributions, or other demonstrated technical communication products.

• Familiarity with NASA Ames Research Center, NASA entry-systems programs, or NASA research and development environments.

Physical and Work Environment Considerations

Some assignments may involve hands-on laboratory, fabrication, and test-facility work. Depending on project needs, the candidate may be expected to work safely around laboratory equipment, instrumentation systems, high-temperature test hardware, and fabrication activities. The candidate may need to stand for extended periods, move or handle test hardware, and lift moderate-weight equipment or materials in accordance with applicable safety requirements and procedures.

Analytical Mechanics Associates (AMA) is proud of our customer relationships, our diverse and dynamic work environment, and our employees' career satisfaction. AMA is a small business with a wide reach; headquartered in Hampton, VA, AMA has operations in Greenbelt, MD; Huntsville, AL; Dallas and Houston, TX; Denver, CO; Mountain View, CA; and Edwards Air Force Base, CA. With over 60 years of experience, AMA specializes in aerospace engineering, science, analytics, information technology, and visualization solutions. AMA combines the best of engineering, science, and mathematics capabilities with the latest in information technologies, visualization, and multimedia to build creative solutions. We offer competitive salaries and a substantial benefits package, including but not limited to paid personal and federally recognized holiday leave, salary deferrals into a 401(k)-matching plan with immediate vesting, tuition reimbursement, short/long term disability plans, and a variety of medical, dental, and vision insurance options.

AMA is committed to the professional growth of every employee, understanding that the successes of our employees drive our success. We provide a work environment that is engaging, collaborative, and supportive. To learn more about our company, please visit our website at and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

AMA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any applicant for employment or employee because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic prohibited under federal, state, or local laws.