Aerospace Thermal Engineer - UAV Heat & Flight Validation

Powerus; Rock Hill (SC); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Powerus seeks a Thermal Engineer to own end-to-end thermal behavior across avionics, propulsion, and payloads. You will build thermal and airflow models, design cooling paths, and validate them with chamber and flight data.

The role requires U.S. Person status due to export-controlled data; you'll work with avionics, power, payload, airframe, and test teams to ensure safe, effective thermal design on-site in Rock Hill, SC.

Qualifications

• Must be located in the United States, within commuting distance of Rock Hill, SC, and able to work on-site.
• Degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience performing thermal analysis of hardware, including modeling and the hand calculations that sanity-check it.
• Familiarity with conduction, convection, and radiation for electronics and machinery.
• Familiarity with computational fluid dynamics or thermal simulation tools and the limits of what their results mean.
• Hands-on test experience - instrumentation, thermal testing, data reading.

Responsibilities

• Build steady-state and transient thermal models of avionics, propulsion, power electronics, and payload assemblies; keep them current as designs evolve.
• Perform CFD and airflow analysis for enclosures, cooling passages, inlets, and exhaust paths.
• Define heat rejection strategy for each subsystem and select conduction, convection, heat spreading, and mounting interfaces.
• Specify heat sinks, interfaces, fans and ducting; coordinate fit and mass with design teams.
• Set component temperature limits and derating guidance; track thermal margin as a budget.

Skills

Thermal analysis

CFD/thermal simulation

Instrumentation planning

Hands-on thermal testing

Data interpretation

Education

Degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering

Tools

CFD software

Job description

Powerus seeks a Thermal Engineer to own end-to-end thermal behavior across avionics, propulsion, and payloads. You will build thermal and airflow models, design cooling paths, and validate them with chamber and flight data.

The role requires U.S. Person status due to export-controlled data; you'll work with avionics, power, payload, airframe, and test teams to ensure safe, effective thermal design on-site in Rock Hill, SC.