[Nyx Earth] Propulsion Design Office Principal Verified today

About the Role

You will lead the propulsion design office for the Nyx Earth program, directing the technical direction and team performance across all propulsion subsystems. You report to program leadership and own the design, analysis, and documentation of feed systems, pressure systems, thermal management, and propulsion structures from concept through qualification.

Team Leadership and Engineering Management

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers spanning thermal, structural/mechanical, CFD and CAD/design functions, fostering a culture of technical excellence and accountability.
• Define individual scopes of work, set priorities, and manage workload across concurrent design activities to keep the team aligned with program milestones.
• Conduct regular design reviews and one-on-ones, providing clear technical direction and supporting career development within the office.

Propulsion System Design and Technical Ownership

• Make or approve key design decisions on feed and pressure systems, and associated structures.
• Drive design-to-requirements traceability, ensuring systems satisfy mass, thermal, and safety margins up to qualification.
• Coordinate with Systems Engineering and Vehicle Design to manage interfaces between the propulsion system and adjacent vehicle subsystems.

Thermal Analysis and Management

• Oversee steady-state and transient thermal analyses of propulsion components, ensuring compliance with temperature limits across all mission phases (ground operations, in-orbit, re-entry).
• Review and approve thermal models, ensuring analytical rigor and correlation with test data.
• Guide the team in identifying test platforms and defining test objectives.

Structural and Mechanical Design

• Direct the mechanical design of propulsion structures and brackets, ensuring adequate strength, stiffness, and fatigue life under load cases.
• Oversee FEA and hand-analysis efforts to verify structural margins, and lead disposition of any margin concerns or design anomalies.
• Work closely with AIT team to define and validate integration sequences.

CAD, Documentation and Configuration Control

• Define and enforce CAD standards, model maturity gates, and drawing release processes within the design office, ensuring consistency and traceability across the propulsion product tree.
• Oversee the maintenance of the engineering master model and associated bill of materials (BOM), coordinating with PDM/PLM administrators to keep configuration control current.
• Ensure design documentation, including ICDs, engineering drawings, design notes, and specification trees, is complete, reviewed, and baselined on schedule.

Experience and Skills

• 5 or more years of hands-on experience in propulsion system design for launch vehicles, spacecraft, or space capsules, with direct exposure to liquid propulsion architectures.
• Demonstrated ability to work across thermal, structural, and mechanical domains. You need not be the deepest expert in every field, but you can lead and critically review work across all three.
• Track record of managing small-to-mid-size engineering teams in a fast-paced, hardware-delivery environment, with the ability to develop junior engineers while maintaining technical standards.
• Prior experience running or closely supervising thermal analyses (e.g. Thermal Desktop, ANSYS or equivalent) and structural analyses (e.g. NASTRAN or equivalent), and strong familiarity with CAD environments (CATIA, NX, or equivalent).
• Experience managing complex system-level trades and interfaces and formal design review processes.
• Hands-on approach to problem-solving, combined with a collaborative mindset to work across multidisciplinary teams.
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to multitask.
• Capability of working autonomously whilst collaborating productively with remote teams.
• Positive and flexible attitude in a constantly evolving environment.
• Ability to communicate effectively with a wide variety of audiences.

Location

You will perform your duties principally at The Exploration Company's premises in Bordeaux, France. You may be required to travel from time to time to the company's premises in Munich.

What Happens Next

All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check. The Exploration Company partners with Zinc Work Limited to conduct this process. Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate, including visa sponsorship where applicable.