Aerodynamic Engineer

Job description

### **About Us** Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces. Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected. Harmattan is seeking an **Aerodynamic Engineer** to help design, validate, and continuously improve the flight physics of our platforms. You'll work across the full loop — from conceptual aerodynamic design and simulation, through physical testing, to the Python tooling that ties it all together — collaborating closely with the Mechanical and GNC teams. ### **Responsibilities** - **Aerodynamic Design & Analysis:** Contribute to the aerodynamic layout and analysis of fixed-wing, multicopter, and eVTOL configurations, moving fluidly between low-fidelity methods (XFoil, OpenVSP, AVL) and higher-fidelity CFD depending on the stage of the design. - **Testing & Validation:** Support flight test and/or wind tunnel campaigns — helping define test cards, instrument prototypes, and run experiments — to validate simulation predictions against real-world data. - **Python Tooling & Automation:** Write Python to automate analysis workflows, process test/flight data, and connect design and simulation tools together into a smoother end-to-end pipeline. - **Aero Database Generation:** Generate and maintain aerodynamic databases and stability derivatives that the GNC team relies on for control law development and autopilot tuning. - **Cross-functional Collaboration:** Work closely with the Mechanical and GNC teams throughout the design cycle to make sure aerodynamic choices stay feasible, stable, and testable in practice. ### **Requirements** - **Education:** B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, or a related field, with coursework or project experience touching aerodynamics or flight mechanics. - **Aerodynamics & Flight Dynamics Knowledge:** Solid grasp of aerodynamic fundamentals (lift, drag, stability) and flight dynamics, with enough intuition to reason about a design's behaviour before running a full simulation or test. - **Python Proficiency:** Comfortable scripting in Python (NumPy, SciPy, Pandas) to process data, automate repetitive analysis, and glue together different engineering tools. - **Simulation or Testing Exposure:** Hands-on experience with at least one side of the validation loop — either aerodynamic simulation (CFD, XFoil, OpenVSP, AVL) or physical/experimental testing (wind tunnel, flight test, prototyping). - **CAD Familiarity:** Comfortable navigating and making basic edits in SolidWorks or CATIA, enough to understand geometry constraints and communicate effectively with the Mechanical team. - **Pragmatic, Hands-on Mindset:** Happy moving across the full design-to-validation loop rather than staying in a single niche, and comfortable working in a small, fast-moving team. ### **Nice-to-have** - French language skills. - Hands-on experience building or flying RC aircraft/drones. - Propeller design and integration with the airframe. - Aeroacoustics. We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.