Thermal / Structures Engineer

GRU builds off-world habitats using in-situ resource utilization technology, turning local material into building material.

We are landing on the Moon in 2027: our first mission will turn lunar regolith into bricks and demonstrate our modular pressurized habitat system. A second mission will begin laying the hotel’s foundation in a lunar cave. A third mission will open the first lunar hotel, targeted 2032.

We don’t stop at Moon hotels. GRU’s long-term plan:

1. Build the first hotel on the Moon. GRU solves off‑world surface habitation.
2. Build America’s first Moon base: roads, mass drivers, warehouses, and physical infrastructure.
3. Repeat on Mars and build the first cities there.
4. Own property on the Moon and Mars as these economies grow.
5. Reinvest profits into resource utilization systems on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and beyond—reaching our final form: Galactic Resource Utilization.

GRU Space is backed by investors in SpaceX + Anduril, and is part of Nvidia’s Inception program.

You’ll own the environmental verification for our 2027 lunar payload, ensuring it withstands launch loads, landing shock, vacuum, and the thermal extremes of the lunar surface. This role is the analytical backbone of the team.

What you’ll do:

• Build and maintain the thermal model for the full payload, electronics thermal management, and lunar surface boundary conditions.
• Run structural FEA for launch vibration, acoustic loads, landing shock, and handling/transport.
• Drive design trades with the mechanical and avionics engineers: your models inform their decisions on materials, mounting, insulation, and heat rejection.
• Support thermal-vacuum and vibration test campaigns: predict performance, compare to test data.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong FEA background (ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus, or similar) for both structural and thermal analysis.
• Experience with spacecraft or launch vehicle thermal environments: conduction networks, radiation exchange, transient analysis.
• Understanding of structural dynamics: random vibration, shock spectra, modal analysis, and how they drive hardware design.
• Ability to make engineering judgments under uncertainty: Class D means we accept more risk, but that requires knowing where the risk actually is.
• You’re using the latest AI tools every day (i.e., Opus 4.6/GPT 5.4, in appropriate harness) to massively increase your output and do things you otherwise couldn’t.
• You’ve built flight hardware before.

If you want to maximize the probability that humanity becomes interplanetary in your lifetime, apply and share a portfolio of the technical work you’re most proud of.

We’re building the first hotel on the Moon, so our tech is focused on off‑world habitation: inflatable, pressurized habitats that can survive vacuum, regolith, radiation, and extreme thermal swings.

Four-stage interview:

1. Intro call

2. Take-home challenge (24 hours)

3. Onsite in SF

4. Offer