Senior Spacecraft Thermal Engineer

Varda Space Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 179,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Relocation support

401(k) retirement plan with 6% match

Fully stocked kitchen

Health insurance

Job summary

Varda Space Industries is looking for a Senior Thermal Analysis Engineer to join the vehicle engineering team in El Segundo, CA. You will develop and maintain thermal system architectures and collaborate with hardware, production, software, and mission operations to ensure vehicle health and performance through all mission phases.

You will build thermal models, process data, and contribute to scalable workflows.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related discipline; typically 3–6+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience developing passive and active thermal control systems.
• Proficiency in detailed thermal analysis tools and lab/flight data anchoring.
• Experience planning and executing TVac testing.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain integrated thermal analysis models for Varda space vehicles.
• Create and maintain tools for model and flight data processing.
• Ensure spacecraft remains within operating and survival limits via thermal control.
• Collaborate with other spacecraft disciplines to drive improvements.
• Plan, execute, and anchor models to TVac testing.
• Provide guidance to vehicle-level testing (thermal bakeout, VITL, hot fire).
• Work independently with minimal oversight.
• Mentor junior engineers and peer-review technical work.

Skills

Thermal analysis

Thermal control systems

Thermal Desktop

SINDA/FLUINT

MATLAB

TVac testing

Data processing

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical communication

Education

B.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace or related

Tools

Thermal Desktop

SINDA/FLUINT

MATLAB

Job description

Varda Space Industries is looking for a Senior Thermal Analysis Engineer to join the vehicle engineering team in El Segundo, CA. You will develop and maintain thermal system architectures and collaborate with hardware, production, software, and mission operations to ensure vehicle health and performance through all mission phases.

You will build thermal models, process data, and contribute to scalable workflows.