About Aspera
Most of the world's goods still move by ships because flying them has always cost too much. We think that's a solvable problem.
We are reviving the lost art of aircraft design to build the highest performing freighter aircraft on the planet. We want to enable a world where the cost of not flying is greater than the cost of flying and 100% of the world's cargo moves by the air. Our first aircraft is a 2,300 kg MTOW, 1,000 kg payload seaplane, cruising at 70 m/s across 2,000+ km stage lengths. The design is inspired by the biomimicry of sharks, whales, and dolphins. We have designed a retractable, hydrofoil-assisted takeoff architecture rather than a stepped hull.
We are a small, technical team that deeply cares about our art and believe in the fact that the cost of flying is an engineering problem.
The Role
We're looking for a hydrodynamics engineer to own the water-side physics of the aircraft: how the hull behaves on water, how the hydrofoils generate lift and stability before the wing takes over, and how we model the transition from a displacement hull to full flight. You'll work directly with our CFD, structures, and flight controls teams, and you'll have real authority over hull and foil geometry — not just analysis, but the ability to say "this needs to change" and drive that change through to design iterations.
What you'll do
- Hull and hydrofoil geometry: Own the hydrodynamic design of the hull form and hydrofoil system — planing surface shape, step design, dihedral, and foil sizing — balancing hump drag, spray, and the no-step hull philosophy we're pursuing.
- Lateral and longitudinal stability on water: Analyze roll and pitch stability across the full speed regime, from displacement (bare-hull, foils inactive) through hump speed to foilborne flight. Characterize where dynamic stability from the foils needs to compensate for hull metacentric behavior.
- Hydrofoil performance analysis: Model foil lift, cavitation margins, ventilation risk, and surface-piercing behavior across sea states; size foils for takeoff assist and low-speed water stability without compromising cruise drag.
- Multi-phase CFD: Run and interpret free-surface, multi-phase simulations (air-water) for hull slamming, spray patterns, planing drag, and the water-to-air transition during takeoff and landing. Familiarity with VOF methods and tools like Reef3D, OpenFOAM's interFoam family, or equivalent is core to this work.
- Planing and takeoff performance: Model the full takeoff run from displacement, hump, planing, unstick and work with the aero team to nail down the speed and attitude at which the hull cleanly releases and the wing takes over.
- Scaling and sub-scale test correlation: Apply Froude scaling to translate sub-scale water test results (we're flying 1:10 models now) into full-scale predictions, and know exactly where Reynolds mismatch matters and where it doesn't.
- Structural interface: Work with our structures team on hydrodynamic loads (slamming loads, foil loads) as inputs to sizing — you don't need to run the structural analysis, but you need to define the loads accurately.
- Instrumentation and test support: Help define what to measure during sub-scale water testing (hump speed, roll behavior, foil-borne stability) and interpret the results against your models.
What you'll bring
- 2–5 years of experience in hydrodynamics, naval architecture, or a closely related field: seaplane/flying boat hull design, high-speed marine craft (hydrofoils, planing hulls, hovercraft), or naval architecture with a strong CFD background.
- Solid grounding in planing hull theory, hydrofoil lift/cavitation theory, and free-surface multi-phase CFD (VOF or equivalent methods).
- Working knowledge of Froude scaling and model-test correlation — you should be comfortable telling us where a sub-scale water test result generalizes and where it doesn't.
- Comfort working across the water/air interface — you'll be coordinating constantly with aerodynamicists, and the best candidates already think of the hull and wing as one system rather than two handoffs.
- Hands-on CFD experience (OpenFOAM, Reef3D, SU2, or similar) — you should be able to set up, run, and troubleshoot your own multi-phase cases, not just interpret results handed to you.
- Comfort with first-principles derivation. We push on assumptions here; "that's how it's historically done" isn't a satisfying answer on its own.
Ideal Qualifications
- Prior work on seaplanes or amphibious aircraft.
- Hydrofoil boats or America's Cup–class foiling craft.
- Naval hydrodynamics research.
Should You Really Join Us?
If you like learning, if you like figuring things out by yourself without others telling you how to do it, and thrive under work pressure to build thousands of airplanes — then this is for you. We are a lean team. There is no rule book to what we're doing. You have an end goal which is based on a real product and you need to get it done your own way. It's hard, and we all love it here.How to Apply?
If you see yourself as a fit for any of the above roles, send a short email to humans@asperaindustries.com introducing yourself and why you'd be a strong fit for the role.- Links to things you've built (videos and photos work best)
- Your resume
- Anything else you think is relevant