Senior Thermal Design Architect – Data Center Cooling

Celestica; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 181,000 - 282,000; Full time

Job summary

Celestica is seeking a senior Thermal Systems Engineer in San Jose to lead designs and guide engineers in liquid cooling solutions for AI servers, switches, accelerators, and rack-level infrastructure.

You will conduct thermal analyses, simulations, and test plans, partnering with cross-functional teams to define system requirements and ensure reliability, cost efficiency, and manufacturability across global deployments.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in thermal systems engineering, preferably with direct experience in liquid cooling for high-performance computing or data
• Hands-on experience with manufacturing processes, supplier management, and technology transfer
• Strong understanding of liquid cooling-specific reliability, safety, and performance challenges

Responsibilities

• Lead designs, conduct detailed analyses, set design strategy, and join department planning.
• Guide design engineers in complete ownership of thermal design for various electronic products—from thermal modeling, design, test, and design revision, until transfer to manufacturing.
• Conduct thermal simulations, postprocessing, and analysis ranging from chip to facilities level to verify thermal feasibility, risk, and to inform your designs.
• Maintain awareness of heat transfer hardware available from all sources, including how it operates and performs, its cost, and how it can be incorporated into our products.
• Conceive and implement ways to enhance and extend operation of heat transfer hardware.
• Consider the thermal aspects of chip packaging technologies.
• Apply best-in-class fluid flow and extended surface geometry to cool high heat flux chips.
• Determine and consider the effects of contact resistance and the use of Thermal Interface Materials.
• Apply air cooling when possible and liquid cooling when necessary to achieve full performance and reliability at the lowest cost.
• Size liquid cold plates, heat sinks, heat pipes, air movers, air filters, air ducting, and perforated plates.
• Plan your work, and that of others, to achieve full required performance, and stay on schedule to support overall product development.
• Reference real world limitations to inform your work, such as manufacturing methods and cost, reliability, variability of incoming parts, and tolerances on all specifications.
• Advise and help with hands‑on lab tests of equipment from component to rack and facility level for design and model validation.

Skills

Data center cooling

Liquid cooling

Thermal simulation

Supply chain interaction

Heat transfer theory

Systems design

Leading engineers

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering

Job description

Celestica is seeking a senior Thermal Systems Engineer in San Jose to lead designs and guide engineers in liquid cooling solutions for AI servers, switches, accelerators, and rack-level infrastructure.

You will conduct thermal analyses, simulations, and test plans, partnering with cross-functional teams to define system requirements and ensure reliability, cost efficiency, and manufacturability across global deployments.