Senior Spacecraft Thermal Engineer for Orbit-Ready Systems

Apex; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in Apex

Health insurance

PTO & holidays

401(k) matching

Parental leave

Lunch & snacks

Office events

Well-equipped Playa Vista office

Job summary

Apex is seeking a Senior Thermal Engineer to own the thermal design and performance of our spacecraft from concept through flight. You will develop and validate spacecraft level thermal models and work hands-on with flight hardware across engineering teams to ensure mission success.

You will lead design analysis, support testing, and coordinate SRR, PDR, and CDR milestones while collaborating with mechanical, systems, avionics, and GNC teams.

Qualifications

• U.S. Person status required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering.
• 5+ years of experience in thermal engineering/analysis.
• Experience with thermal modeling tools.
• Strong heat transfer fundamentals.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead payload thermal design from concept through qualification, launch, and on‑orbit operations.
• Own thermal interface with external customers and define requirements.
• Develop and maintain spacecraft- and payload-level thermal models (Ansys).
• Implement active and passive thermal control solutions.
• Design and analyze active thermal-fluid systems and integration with spacecraft architectures.
• Collaborate with mechanical, systems, avionics, GNC and other teams.
• Plan thermal milestone reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR).
• Support thermal hardware development, testing, and integration.
• Correlate test/flight data to models to improve accuracy.

Skills

Thermal engineering

Thermal modeling

Ansys Thermal Desktop

Heat transfer fundamentals

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering

Tools

Siemens NX

Teamcenter

Ansys Thermal Desktop

Job description

Apex is seeking a Senior Thermal Engineer to own the thermal design and performance of our spacecraft from concept through flight. You will develop and validate spacecraft level thermal models and work hands-on with flight hardware across engineering teams to ensure mission success.

You will lead design analysis, support testing, and coordinate SRR, PDR, and CDR milestones while collaborating with mechanical, systems, avionics, and GNC teams.