Senior Thermal CFD Engineer - Exhaust and Underbody

PACCAR; Mount Vernon (WA); On-site; USD 104,100 - 162,900; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

401k with company match

Pension plan

Paid time off

Job summary

PACCAR is seeking an experienced Thermal and CFD Engineer to lead 3D thermal and CFD analyses for exhaust and aftertreatment systems at the PACCAR Technical Center. You will predict heat transfer, pressure drops, and temperatures across loads, supporting design decisions for underbody thermal management.

You will work with Kenworth and Peterbilt teams to translate complex findings into actionable recommendations, develop guidelines for insulation, shields, and routing, and help build a reusable

Qualifications

• 7+ years of engineering experience.
• 5+ years of CFD & Thermal Analysis experience.
• Experience in automotive, aerospace, electronics cooling, HVAC, or related industries.
• Strong understanding of heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and numerical methods.
• Expertise in CFD modeling, including meshing, solver setup, boundary conditions, and post-processing.
• Skilled in CFD/thermal tools such as STAR-CCM+, Fluent, TAITherm.
• Experience with CAD tools such as Creo, SolidWorks, CATIA, or similar.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and technical reporting skills.
• Effective communication and teamwork with design, testing, and manufacturing teams.

Responsibilities

• Perform 3D thermal and CFD analysis for exhaust and aftertreatment systems.
• Predict heat loss, pressure drop, underhood and underbody temperatures, under various load cases.
• Evaluate DEF system thermal behavior, including doser, hoses, tank interfaces, and filling-related CFD needs.
• Develop design recommendations on insulation strategy, heat shields, component clearances, exhaust routing geometry, and shielding.
• Support concept-phase architecture studies, DFMEA inputs, and comparative A/B trade studies.
• Correlate simulation with test/validation data and help build a reusable simulation-to-validation knowledge base.
• Develop simulation methodologies for underhood and underbody simulations.
• Create engineering guidelines and best practices for clearance, shielding, and thermal protection.
• Work cross-functionally with packaging, reliability, validation, plant support, and warranty teams.

Skills

CFD & Thermal Analysis

Problem solving

Technical reporting

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

STAR-CCM+

Fluent

TAITherm

Creo

SolidWorks

CATIA

Job description

PACCAR is seeking an experienced Thermal and CFD Engineer to lead 3D thermal and CFD analyses for exhaust and aftertreatment systems at the PACCAR Technical Center. You will predict heat transfer, pressure drops, and temperatures across loads, supporting design decisions for underbody thermal management.

You will work with Kenworth and Peterbilt teams to translate complex findings into actionable recommendations, develop guidelines for insulation, shields, and routing, and help build a reusable