Staff Flight Sciences Engineer

Reaxiomatic

Staff Flight Sciences Engineer

San Diego, CA
Full Time
Paid
  • Responsibilities

    Role Overview
    The Staff Flight Sciences Engineer is responsible for assessing and validating the flight performance and safety margins of systems developed by Reax. This role ensures that aircraft and related systems operate within defined programmatic performance requirements while producing the analytical rationale required by regulators and customers. The position emphasizes rigorous first-principles analysis and sound engineering judgment to guide design decisions under aggressive development timelines and constrained budgets.

    Required Qualifications

    • Strong first-principles understanding of flight sciences, including aerodynamics, propulsion, flight mechanics, structural analysis, and stability and control.
    • Demonstrated ability to answer engineering questions using disciplined analytical reasoning, including hand calculations and simplified models, and to apply higher-order analysis methods only when warranted.
    • Experience performing technical analysis across the full engineering lifecycle, from clean-sheet concept development through operational deployment.
    • Ability to translate engineering analysis into clear, defensible technical rationale suitable for regulators, customers, and internal program decision-making.
    • Proven ability to integrate analysis across multiple technical domains and coordinate closely with engineers responsible for other subsystems.

    Preferred Qualifications

    • Experience supporting multiple categories of aerospace systems (e.g., aircraft, rockets, satellites, or other flight systems) across full development lifecycles.
    • Prior work within engineering organizations that deliver operational aerospace hardware on compressed development schedules.

    Reporting Structure and Scope

    This role reports to the Founder and CEO. It is an individual contributor position with no initial direct reports, though the engineer may manage subcontractors or vendors when required.

    The Staff Flight Sciences Engineer owns the predictive technical assessment of Reax systems and products. This includes evaluating performance margins, identifying safety risks, and ensuring that integrated system behavior aligns with program goals. The engineer works closely with other engineering disciplines to ensure that the combined output of multiple subsystems results in a safe and compliant flight system.

    The role also serves as a technical interface with regulators when required. Responsibilities include developing analytical packages that support certification or experimental approval pathways, identifying potential regulatory constraints early, and working with both regulators and internal engineering teams to resolve issues without unnecessarily slowing development.