SENIOR THERMAL ENGINEER

Calance; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Calance is seeking a Senior Thermal Engineer in Costa Mesa, CA to own thermal design and analysis for advanced defense hardware across drones, aircraft, missiles, and related flight systems.

You will apply first-principles reasoning to determine the right level of analysis—from hand calculations to FEA/CFD—and work with electrical, mechanical, aerospace, software, and systems engineers to ensure robust thermal architectures for rugged environments and demanding flight envelopes.

Qualifications

• Must have strong heat transfer and fluid dynamics fundamentals.
• Experience with thermal analysis, modeling, and testing.
• Proven ability to use first-principles reasoning to guide design decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own thermal design and analysis for drones, aircraft, missiles, or related defense systems.
• Develop and maintain thermal FEA/CFD models to predict performance.
• Define thermal architectures for rugged environments and extreme flight envelopes.
• Document power dissipation, operating modes, and design tradeoffs with cross-functional teams.
• Execute prototype builds and thermal tests, including sensor selection and data processing.
• Present findings and recommendations in design reviews and customer-facing sessions.
• Develop reusable analysis tools and workflows to improve speed and consistency.

Skills

Heat transfer

Fluid dynamics

Thermal analysis

FEA/CFD

MATLAB

Python

CAD tools

Education

MS or PhD in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

STAR-CCM+

ANSYS

Icepak

Flotherm

MATLAB

Python

SolidWorks / NX

Job description

"U.S. citizenship required due to the need to obtain and maintain a Top Secret security clearance. This position is subject to ITAR."

About the Team

The Thermal Engineering team enables rapid hardware development cycle by ensuring advanced defense systems perform reliably in demanding real-world environments. The team works across high-power, tightly integrated products where thermal architecture, analysis, testing, and cross-functional design decisions directly affect product performance, reliability, and mission success.

About the Job

We are looking for a Senior Thermal Engineer to join our team in Costa Mesa, CA. In this role, you will own thermal design and analysis for advanced defense hardware across drones, aircraft, missiles, and related flight systems.

This role is ideal for someone with deep heat transfer and fluid dynamics fundamentals, strong thermal analysis capability, and the practical judgment to choose the right level of analysis, from first-order hand calculations through detailed FEA / CFD, to guide fast design decisions.

What You'll Do

Own thermal design and analysis for integrated hardware products, including drones, aircraft, missiles, or related defense systems.

Use first-principles engineering judgment to determine the right level of analysis for each design decision, including hand calculations, spreadsheets, MATLAB / Python models, FEA, and CFD.

Define thermal architectures that can withstand rugged environments, demanding flight envelopes, and operational edge cases, including hot, cold, transient, and mission-specific thermal conditions.

Partner with electrical, mechanical, aerospace, software, and systems engineers to document power dissipation, operating modes, thermal constraints, and design tradeoffs.

Build and maintain thermal FEA / CFD models to predict system performance, establish design limits, and define red / yellow operating thresholds for test and field use.

Define and execute prototype builds and thermal tests, including CAD support, sensor selection, DAQ setup, data post-processing, and results documentation.

Present thermal status, risks, tradeoffs, timelines, and recommendations in internal design reviews and customer-facing technical reviews.

Develop internal tools, workflows, or analysis methods that improve speed, consistency, and quality of thermal decision-making.

Support failure reviews and root-cause investigations using test data, thermal analysis, and first-principles reasoning.

Required Qualifications

MS or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field with a focus on heat transfer, fluid dynamics, thermal sciences, or thermal systems.

5+ years of experience designing, analyzing, or validating thermal systems for integrated hardware products.

Strong first-principles understanding of heat transfer and fluid dynamics, including conduction, convection, radiation, fluid flow, and transient thermal behavior.

Experience supporting thermal design for aerospace, aircraft, rocket, missile, UAV, defense, or other high-performance hardware systems.

Experience using thermal analysis, modeling, simulation, and/or physical test data to drive design decisions for passive or active thermal management systems.

Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs clearly across engineering, program, and customer stakeholders, and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with thermal analysis tools such as STAR-CCM+, ANSYS, Icepak, Flotherm, or comparable FEA / CFD platforms.

Experience using MATLAB, Python, spreadsheets, or similar tools for first-order thermal modeling, transient analysis, or engineering trade studies.

Experience designing thermal hardware such as heat sinks, cold plates, fans, pumps, heat exchangers, thermal interface materials, liquid cooling systems, or air-cooling systems.

Experience planning or executing thermal tests, including sensor selection, data acquisition, data post-processing, and correlation of test results to analysis.

Experience with SolidWorks, Siemens NX, or comparable CAD tools.

Experience supporting formal design reviews, customer reviews, flight test, qualification testing, or fielded hardware.

Experience developing reusable analysis tools, automation workflows, reduced-order models, or other methods that improve analysis speed and consistency.