7 free aerospace engineering templates by domain and seniority, with export-control language built in. Download as DOCX or copy-paste.
Aerospace engineering postings are written for two very different employers. The primes and agencies that employ most of the profession have recruiting departments, templates, and contract-driven boilerplate. And then there is the rest of the industry: the eight-person UAS company, the thirty-person smallsat startup, the component supplier and the engineering consultancy, where the founder or chief engineer writes the posting personally, and where the details that carry legal weight, the export-control line above all, are exactly what generic templates fumble.
At FirstHR, we build for small teams that hire without an HR department, and this page is written with that second employer in mind while covering the full role. The seven templates below span the real shapes of the job, general, aeronautical, astronautical, UAS, entry-level, senior, and the small-team version with a founder's note, each with the export-control, clearance, and review-gate fields built in as structured brackets. Fill them in and post. For the general principles behind any posting, the guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
TL;DR
Seven free, ready-to-use aerospace engineer (aerospace engineering) job description templates: General, Aeronautical, Astronautical / Spacecraft, UAS / Drone, Entry-Level, Senior / Principal, and Startup / Small Team. Download all seven as one DOCX, fill in the program, tools, and export-control fields, and post. Write the ITAR line as the regulation defines it, require clearance and PE only where the work demands them, and sell ownership where you cannot outbid the primes.
What Does an Aerospace Engineer Do?
An aerospace engineer designs, analyzes, tests, and supports the production of aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and missiles, and the structures, propulsion, control, thermal, and power systems inside them. The BLS occupational profile for aerospace engineers describes a profession of about 71,600 jobs concentrated in aerospace manufacturing, engineering services, the federal government, and R&D, and the O*NET profile catalogs the work activities the postings draw from: design, analysis, test direction, and documentation among them.
For the employer writing the posting, the variable that matters most is scale. A large program hires deep specialists, the stress engineer, the GNC engineer, the thermal analyst, while a small company hires for range: one engineer owning structures and test, or vehicle design and customer interface together. The seven templates on this page are split by domain and seniority, with a dedicated version for the small team where the breadth is the role's design rather than an accident.
Aerospace Engineer Duties and Responsibilities
Aerospace engineering duties center on design and analysis, test and integration, documentation and reviews, and the compliance and coordination work that surrounds controlled technical data. The domain shifts the weights, aircraft work leans into certification and flight test, spacecraft work into environmental campaigns and mission assurance, but the four categories hold across the profession. These are the responsibilities grouped the way the templates use them.
Design & analysis
Design structures, systems, or components in CAD
Perform structural, aerodynamic, thermal, or propulsion analysis
Develop requirements and run trade studies
Test & integration
Plan and conduct ground, flight, or environmental tests
Reduce test data against predictions and requirements
Investigate anomalies and drive root-cause fixes
Documentation & reviews
Produce drawings, specs, and analysis reports
Support design reviews from PDR through CDR
Work within configuration management and quality systems
Compliance & coordination
Follow export control procedures for technical data
Support certification or mission assurance work
Coordinate with suppliers, customers, and regulators
A strong posting picks the duties that match the actual program and grounds them in specifics: the CAD and analysis tools by name, the review gates, the test regime, the certification basis or mission assurance standard. Specificity is also self-screening: engineers read tool lists and program stages the way recruiters read resumes. For a structured way to scope any role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Aerospace vs Aeronautical vs Astronautical: Which Title Do You Post?
Aerospace engineering is the umbrella; the branches divide by where the vehicle operates, and the posting reads more credibly when it uses the term the domain uses.
Factor
Aerospace engineer
Aeronautical engineer
Astronautical engineer
Scope
Umbrella term for the whole field
Flight within the atmosphere
Spacecraft, satellites, and launch
Typical hardware
Any: aircraft, spacecraft, UAS, components
Aircraft, rotorcraft, eVTOL, UAS
Satellites, launch vehicles, subsystems
Test regime
Per the program
Wind tunnel and flight test
Vibration, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC
Regulatory frame
Varies by product
FAA certification bases
Mission assurance; launch licensing
Post this title when
Hiring across domains or for range
The product flies in the atmosphere
The product goes to orbit or beyond
In practice, most postings use the umbrella title with the domain named in the summary, which is also how applicants search: aerospace engineer job description and aerospace engineering job description are the same query, and both branch templates below carry the umbrella structure with the domain-specific fields added.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by domain first, then by seniority and company size. All seven share the same skeleton, program context, four-category duties, honest requirements, the export-control line, compensation, but a spacecraft posting and a UAS posting differ in test regimes, compliance defaults, and the applicants they reach. Use this guide to choose.
General Aerospace Engineer
Any program or product
The baseline: design, analysis, test, and documentation duties with tool, review, and export-control fields, adaptable to any aerospace domain.
Aeronautical Engineer
Aircraft and flight within the atmosphere
The aircraft version: aerodynamics, airframe structures, flight test, and certification-basis fields from Part 23 to experimental.
Astronautical / Spacecraft Engineer
Satellites, launch, and on-orbit systems
The space version: launch and on-orbit environments, mission analysis budgets, environmental test campaigns, and the ITAR default stated.
UAS / Drone Engineer
Unmanned aircraft systems
The variation no template library offers, and the one small companies actually post: fast design-build-fly cycles, autopilot integration, Part 107 fields.
Entry-Level Aerospace Engineer
New grads and early-career
Scoped tasks under senior review, fundamentals-first requirements, and the design-team and rocketry-club experience counted explicitly.
Senior / Principal Aerospace Engineer
Design authority and mentorship
Technical ownership, the highest-consequence analysis, customer-facing work, and team mentorship, written as a hands-on senior role.
Startup / Small Team
Engineering hire #1 to #5
The founder's-note version: broad ownership, real ambiguity, equity stated as a range, and export control taken seriously from day one.
Match the Template to the Hardware
The fastest way to choose is by what the engineer's work will fly on. Aircraft in the atmosphere? Aeronautical. Orbit? Astronautical. Unmanned platforms on fast iteration cycles? UAS. Hiring across domains or for a component program? General. New grad with a design-team resume? Entry-Level. Design authority and mentorship? Senior. And if you are a founder writing engineering hire #2's posting yourself, the Startup version was written for you.
Download all seven as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: company and program context, domain-specific duties, requirements stated at the real bar, the export-control field written as the regulation defines it, and compensation with equity fields for small teams. Fill in the brackets before you post.
Download All 7 Job Description Templates
General, aeronautical, astronautical, UAS / drone, entry-level, senior, and startup / small team. All in one DOCX.
Template 1: General Aerospace Engineer
The baseline: design, analysis, test, and documentation duties with tool, review-gate, and export-control fields, adaptable to any domain.
General Aerospace Engineer Job Description
AEROSPACE ENGINEER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __
Location: __ [ ] On-site [ ] Hybrid
Reports to: [Chief Engineer / Engineering Manager / Director of
Engineering]
Employment type: [ ] Full-time [ ] Contract
Salary range: $_____ to $_____ per year
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Two or three sentences: what you build, aircraft, spacecraft,
propulsion, components, or systems, what stage the program is at,
and the team the engineer will join.]
JOB SUMMARY
[Company Name] is hiring an Aerospace Engineer to design, analyze,
and test [aircraft / spacecraft / propulsion systems / components]
for [program or product]. You will own engineering work from
requirements through design, analysis, prototyping, and test,
documenting everything to the standards our customers and
regulators expect.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
•Design [structures / systems / components] in [CAD tools]
The variation small companies actually post: fast design-build-fly cycles, autopilot integration, fields for the FAA's UAS rules including Part 107, and hands-on build expectations.
UAS / Drone Engineer Job Description
UAS / DRONE ENGINEER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __
Location: __
Reports to: [Chief Engineer / Head of Engineering]
Employment type: [ ] Full-time [ ] Contract
Salary range: $_____ to $_____ per year
JOB SUMMARY
[Company Name] builds [unmanned aircraft / drone systems] for
Export Control and Hiring: The Line Most Postings Get Wrong
Most aerospace technical data, designs, analysis, source code, and test data for defense articles and many commercial space and aircraft systems, is controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or the Export Administration Regulations. Sharing controlled technical data with a foreign person, including an employee inside your own building, is legally an export, which is why aerospace postings carry the U.S. person requirement: under the regulations administered by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, a U.S. person includes citizens, lawful permanent residents, and certain protected individuals, a category meaningfully wider than citizens only.
The hiring consequences cut both ways. A role that genuinely accesses controlled data may lawfully require U.S. person status, and the posting should say so plainly so applicants self-screen. But overshooting the requirement, writing U.S. citizens only where the regulation permits any U.S. person, or applying the line to roles that never touch controlled data, creates citizenship-discrimination exposure under the rules the EEOC enforces for job advertisements and related anti-discrimination law. The templates above carry the line in its correct form, must meet U.S. person requirements as defined by ITAR/EAR, with a bracket forcing the decision of whether the role actually requires it. Small companies get no exemption: a five-person shop handling controlled drawings owes the same compliance as a prime, and documenting the determination is part of the hire.
Aerospace Engineer Requirements and Skills to Include
Aerospace engineering requirements should be stated at the real bar: the degree and fundamentals as the gate, the tools named, and the credentials, PE license, security clearance, demanded only where the work demands them. The SHRM job description tools describe a good job description as a plain-language summary of a position's tasks, duties, and responsibilities, and in this field plain language has a second function: engineers screen postings for inflated requirements the way reviewers screen analysis for unstated assumptions. The difference shows in how the bullets are written.
Weak requirement
Strong requirement
Engineering degree required
Bachelor's in aerospace, mechanical, or related engineering; design-team and rocketry project work counts for early-career roles
Experience with CAD and analysis
Proficiency with [your CAD tool] and [your analysis tools], with examples of hardware analyzed or built
Must be a U.S. citizen
Must meet U.S. person requirements as defined by ITAR/EAR (role accesses controlled technical data)
PE license required
PE license preferred for consulting-facing work; not required for internal product engineering
Strong communication skills
Writes analysis reports and test documentation a reviewer can check without a meeting
Keep the gate honest in both directions: count internships, co-ops, and student build programs explicitly for entry roles, since they are the profession's real pipeline, and resist credential inflation at the senior end, where hardware delivered and design authority held say more than any acronym after the name.
How to Write an Aerospace Engineer Job Description
A strong aerospace posting takes about thirty minutes once you settle the domain, the export-control determination, and the range. Here is the process the templates are built around. If this is among your team's first hires, the small business hiring guide covers the steps around the posting, and the technical recruitment guide covers sourcing for engineering roles generally.
1
Pick the domain and seniority version
General, aeronautical, astronautical, UAS, entry-level, senior, or startup. The domain decides the duties, the test regime, and the compliance defaults.
2
Lead with the hardware and the program
Engineers evaluate what they will build before anything else. Name the vehicle, the program stage, and the engineer's slice of it in the first lines.
3
Write the export-control line precisely
Where the role accesses controlled data, require U.S. person status as ITAR/EAR define it, no broader and no narrower, and document the determination.
4
State requirements at the real bar
Degree and fundamentals as the gate, tools named, student build programs counted for early-career, PE and clearance only where the work demands them.
5
Publish the range, and for small teams, the equity
Salary range plus equity as a range, with ownership and cycle time written concretely. Small teams win these hires on terms, not base salary.
Aerospace Engineer Salary
Aerospace engineering pay sits among the higher engineering bands, with seniority, domain, and clearance status moving the number within it. Anchor on the federal data, then position your offer on the terms your company can actually win.
Aerospace Engineer Pay and Demand (BLS, May 2024)
The median annual wage for aerospace engineers was $134,830 as of May 2024, with the lowest 10 percent earning under $85,350 and the highest 10 percent above $205,850. The occupation held about 71,600 jobs in 2024, with employment projected to grow 6 percent through 2034, faster than average, and roughly 4,500 openings projected per year over the decade (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Within the band, the predictable levers apply: defense and launch programs in high-cost regions pay above the national figures, active clearances command premiums, and senior engineers with design authority sit well above the median. For small companies the honest read is that the base-salary auction is usually lost before it starts, and the winning posting publishes a fair range, states equity as a range rather than a mystery, and writes the ownership, the cycle time, and the breadth of the role concretely, because those are the terms on which engineers choose small teams over primes.
Hiring for a Small Aerospace Team
Most aerospace engineers work for large manufacturers, engineering services firms, and the federal government, but the small end of the industry is real: UAS companies, smallsat startups, component suppliers, and engineering consultancies running teams of five to fifty without an HR department. Hiring there works on different terms, and the posting should be written for them.
Sell the ownership, because you cannot outbid the primes on salary
A five-person UAS company or a thirty-person smallsat startup will rarely match the compensation a major defense contractor offers the same engineer, and the posting should not pretend otherwise. What the small team has is the thing many aerospace engineers privately want: hardware they can touch, a design-to-flight cycle measured in months, decisions made in the room rather than three layers up, and a name on work that flies. Write that concretely, name the cycle time, the team size, the breadth of ownership, and state the equity as a range rather than a mystery, because the engineers who choose small teams choose them for exactly these terms.
Get the export control line right before the posting goes live
Most aerospace technical data is controlled under ITAR or EAR, which means most roles legitimately require the hire to be a U.S. person, a citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other protected individual under the law. The compliance trap is wording: a posting that says U.S. citizens only when the law actually permits any U.S. person overshoots the requirement and creates citizenship-discrimination exposure, while a posting that ignores export control entirely invites a violation that small companies are not too small to commit. Write the line as the regulation defines it, must meet U.S. person requirements as defined by ITAR/EAR, only where the role genuinely accesses controlled data, and document the determination.
Hire for range, and say in the posting that range is the job
The prime hires a stress engineer who does stress analysis; the ten-person company hires an engineer who does stress analysis on Monday, instruments the test rig on Wednesday, and writes the customer report on Friday. Postings copied from large-company templates filter for the wrong person: deep single-discipline specialists who will be frustrated by the breadth, instead of the builder-engineers who thrive in it. State the breadth as the role's design rather than a confession, list the two or three disciplines the work actually spans, count hands-on build experience explicitly among the qualifications, and ask applicants for the thing they have built, because for a small team that answer predicts success better than the degree line.
After You Hire: Onboarding an Aerospace Engineer
Engineering onboarding runs on two tracks, and in aerospace the second one carries compliance weight. The standard track: the offer signed, the I-9 completed with documents verified, the W-4 and state tax forms, and state new hire reporting, covered in the new hire paperwork guide. The aerospace track: the export-control determination documented and the new hire briefed on controlled-data handling before system access is granted, clearance processing initiated where the program requires it, CAD, analysis, and configuration management accounts provisioned, and the quality system trained explicitly, because documentation standards absorbed by osmosis fail audits.
Then the first 90 days decide how fast the hire converts to output: a well-scoped first task in week one, a design review observed early, milestones for taking ownership written down, and for small teams, the founder's expectations made explicit rather than assumed. The offer letter template handles the acceptance step, a 30-60-90 day plan paces the ramp, the employee onboarding template structures the schedule, the training plan template organizes the quality-system and export-control training, and the employee handbook template puts the company's policies in writing. FirstHR connects all of it, e-signature, document storage for I-9s and training records, training assignments with due dates, and the onboarding checklist, in one place built for small teams without an HR department.
Key Takeaways
Aerospace engineer is one umbrella over genuinely different jobs: post the aeronautical, astronautical, UAS, or startup version so the right engineers self-select.
Lead with the hardware: engineers evaluate the vehicle, the program stage, and their slice of it before they read a single benefit.
Write the export-control line as the regulation defines it: U.S. person status under ITAR/EAR where the role accesses controlled data, never a broader citizenship bar than the law supports.
Require PE licenses and clearances only where the work demands them; inflated credentials filter out the builder-engineers small teams need most.
Small teams win on terms, not base salary: publish the range, state equity as a range, and write the ownership and cycle time concretely.
Onboard with the compliance track in view: controlled-data briefing before access, quality-system training stated explicitly, and a scoped first task in week one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an aerospace engineer do?
An aerospace engineer designs, analyzes, tests, and supports the production of aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, missiles, and the systems inside them: structures, propulsion, aerodynamics, guidance and control, and thermal and power systems among others. The daily work moves through a recognizable cycle regardless of domain: developing requirements, designing in CAD, performing engineering analysis, building and testing hardware or supporting test campaigns, investigating anomalies, and documenting everything to the standards customers and regulators expect. The profession formally splits into aeronautical engineering, flight within the atmosphere, and astronautical engineering, spacecraft and launch, with growing segments in unmanned aircraft systems and small satellites. The employer's size changes the shape of the job substantially: large programs assign deep single-discipline roles, while small companies hire engineers who own a broad slice from analysis through hands-on test.
What are aerospace engineer duties and responsibilities?
Aerospace engineering duties fall into four areas. Design and analysis: designing structures, systems, or components in CAD, performing structural, aerodynamic, thermal, or propulsion analysis, developing requirements, and running trade studies. Test and integration: planning and conducting ground, flight, or environmental test campaigns, reducing test data against predictions, investigating anomalies to root cause, and supporting integration with manufacturing and suppliers. Documentation and reviews: producing drawings, specifications, analysis reports, and test documentation, supporting design reviews from preliminary through critical design review, and working within configuration management and quality systems. Compliance and coordination: following export control procedures for technical data, supporting certification or mission assurance work, and coordinating with customers and regulators. A strong posting picks the duties that match the actual program and names the tools, the review gates, and the certification or mission context.
What is the difference between aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering?
Aerospace engineering is the umbrella discipline, and it divides into two branches by where the vehicle operates. Aeronautical engineering covers flight within the atmosphere: aircraft aerodynamics, airframe structures, propulsion, flight performance, and the certification frameworks that govern manned aviation. Astronautical engineering covers spacecraft and launch: the launch environment, orbital mechanics, vacuum and thermal-cycling conditions, radiation, and mission operations. The branches share fundamentals, structures, propulsion, controls, and many engineers move between them, but the postings differ in real ways: an aircraft role names a certification basis and flight test, while a spacecraft role names environmental test campaigns and mission assurance standards, and spacecraft technical data carries export-control sensitivity by default. For a job posting, use the term your domain uses, and note that aerospace engineer job description and aerospace engineering job description describe the same search, which is why both resolve to this page.
What should an aerospace engineer job description include?
A complete aerospace engineer job description includes the company and program context up front, since engineers evaluate the hardware before the perks, a job summary naming the domain and the engineer's place in it, duties across design, analysis, test, documentation, and compliance with the actual tools and review gates named, degree and experience requirements stated honestly with project and internship experience counted for early-career roles, the export-control line written precisely where the role accesses controlled technical data (U.S. person status as defined by ITAR/EAR, not a broader citizenship requirement than the law supports), any security clearance requirement, the salary range, and an equal opportunity statement. For small companies, two additions matter: the breadth of ownership stated as the role's design, and equity expressed as a range. The export-control wording is the detail most generic templates get wrong, and it carries legal weight.
Do aerospace engineers need a PE license or security clearance?
Usually neither is required, and a posting should only require what the role actually needs. The Professional Engineer license is uncommon in aerospace industry practice because the industrial exemption covers most engineering work performed inside companies on their own products; PE licensure matters mainly for consulting-facing work, some government roles, and engineers who sign off work offered directly to the public, so list it as preferred where relevant rather than required. Security clearances apply only to classified programs: many defense roles require the ability to obtain one, and some require an active clearance, which dramatically narrows the candidate pool and should be stated only when the contract genuinely demands it. Separate from both is export control: a role that touches ITAR or EAR-controlled technical data requires U.S. person status under the regulations, which is a legal status question, not a clearance, and applies to small companies exactly as it does to primes.
How much does an aerospace engineer make?
Federal data puts the median annual wage for aerospace engineers at $134,830 as of May 2024, with the lowest 10 percent earning under $85,350 and the highest 10 percent above $205,850. The occupation held about 71,600 jobs in 2024, with employment projected to grow 6 percent through 2034, faster than the average for all occupations, and roughly 4,500 openings projected per year over the decade. Within the band, experience and domain move the number: entry-level roles typically start near the lower percentiles, senior and principal engineers with design authority sit well above the median, and defense and launch programs in high-cost regions pay above national figures. Small companies competing for the same engineers rarely win on base salary alone, which is why startup postings publish the salary range alongside equity stated as a range and the ownership the role actually carries.
Can a small company even hire an aerospace engineer?
Yes, and a meaningful slice of the industry's most interesting work happens there. While most aerospace engineers work for large manufacturers, engineering services firms, and the federal government, the small-company segment is real and growing: UAS and drone companies building inspection, agriculture, and defense platforms, smallsat and cubesat startups, propulsion and component suppliers, engineering consultancies, and flight test support firms, many of them under 50 people without an HR department. Hiring into that segment works on different terms than competing with the primes: the posting sells ownership, cycle time, and breadth rather than ladder and benefits depth, counts hands-on build experience explicitly, and handles export control with the same rigor a large company would, because ITAR has no small-business exemption. The startup template on this page is written for exactly that posting, founder's note included.
What happens after I hire an aerospace engineer?
Two tracks start on acceptance. The standard track: the offer letter signed, the I-9 completed with documents verified, the W-4 and state tax forms, state new hire reporting, and benefits enrollment. The aerospace-specific track: the export-control determination documented and the new hire briefed on handling controlled technical data before access is granted, security clearance processing initiated where the program requires it, accounts provisioned for the CAD, analysis, and configuration management systems, and the quality system and documentation standards trained explicitly rather than absorbed. A structured first 90 days matters for engineers: a first well-scoped task in week one, a design review observed early, and clear milestones for taking ownership. FirstHR handles the offer with e-signature, document storage for I-9s and training records, training assignments with due dates, and the onboarding checklist in one place, built for small teams that run without an HR department.
