Aerothermal Engineer

Aerothermal Engineer

Harmattan AI

Lausanne, Switzerland

Harmattan is seeking a hands-on Aerothermal Engineer to join our Aerodynamics team. You will own the full thermal and aerothermal engineering cycle for our UAV platforms: from early design recommendations and simulation to wind tunnel experiments and flight test campaigns. Your work directly impacts the survivability, reliability, and performance of our systems in contested environments. You will be the technical authority on heat transfer, thermal management, and aerothermal interactions across all vehicle programs — working closely with aerodynamics, propulsion, mechanical, and GNC teams to ensure our platforms perform within thermal limits under real operational conditions.

Responsibilities

• Aerothermal Design & Recommendations: Provide early-stage design guidance on thermal management architecture — including cooling inlet design, heat shield placement, exhaust routing, and surface coatings — to ensure airframes remain within thermal limits across the full flight envelope.
• Thermal & Aerothermal Simulation: Set up, run, and validate lower fidelity thermal models, simulations and coupled thermal-fluid CFD tools (e.g., OpenFOAM). Model convective, conductive, and radiative heat transfer on internal components (batteries, motors, avionics) and external aerodynamic surfaces.
• Design Optimization: Drive iterative aerothermal optimization cycles to minimize thermal drag penalty, reduce hotspot intensity, and maximize cooling efficiency. Leverage scripting and automated workflows to sweep design parameters and converge on optimal configurations.
• Wind Tunnel Test Campaigns: Design, plan, and execute aerothermal wind tunnel experiments. Define instrumentation strategy (thermocouples, heat flux sensors, pressure taps), write test plans, operate test rigs, and lead post-test data analysis and correlation with simulation.
• Flight Test Campaigns: Contribute to and lead in-flight thermal measurement campaigns. Define DAQ architecture for thermal sensors, develop test matrices, analyze flight data, and correlate with CFD predictions to validate models and sign off thermal margins.
• Cross-functional Integration: Act as the thermal interface between the aerodynamics, propulsion, mechanical, and GNC teams — ensuring that thermal constraints are reflected in system-level trade-offs and that heat rejection requirements are accounted for in the airframe design.

Requirements

• Education: B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field with a strong focus on fluid mechanics and heat transfer.
• AeroThermal Fundamentals: Solid theoretical grounding in convective, conductive, and radiative heat transfer; boundary layer theory; and viscous flow physics as applied to aircraft surfaces and internal cooling passages.
• Thermal Simulation Proficiency: Hands-on experience with CFD simulations in at least one major solver (OpenFOAM, Star-CCM+, ANSYS Fluent/CFX, or equivalent). Ability to select appropriate thermal boundary conditions, turbulence models, and mesh strategies for accuracy.
• Experimental Testing: Demonstrated experience planning and executing thermal measurement campaigns — either in wind tunnel or in-flight — including instrumentation selection, DAQ setup, data reduction, and uncertainty analysis.
• Python Proficiency: Ability to script data processing pipelines, automate post-processing of thermal simulation outputs, and interface with experimental DAQ systems.
• Technical Communication: Ability to translate complex aerothermal findings into clear design recommendations for multidisciplinary teams.

Nice to have

• General Aerodynamic Knowledge: Familiarity with the fundamentals of external aerodynamics — lift and drag generation, pressure distributions, boundary layer behaviour, and flow separation — as applied to fixed-wing or multirotor UAV platforms.
• RC Knowledge: Hands-on experience building, flying, or tuning RC aircraft or drones — whether fixed-wing, quadcopter, or hybrid configurations.