You''re the right person if: You''ve done something extraordinary early - designed rocket injectors, led a competition team (e.g., Formula SAE, AIAA Design/Build/Fly) where you owned propulsion, aerothermal, or fluid networks, or done propulsion work in an internship that most engineers don''t see for years. Hands-on modeling and analytical experience - proficiency with 1D/3D CFD tools (e.g., Ansys Fluent, STAR-CCM+, or OpenFOAM), thermodynamics/cycle analysis tools (e.g., NPSS, GasTurb, or pyCycle), and/or finite element analysis (FEA) tools (e.g., Abaqus, Ansys Mechanical, Nastran, or CalculiX).