Senior Thermal Engineer - Defense Hardware

Anduril Industries, Inc.; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 129,000 - 171,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA is seeking a Thermal Engineer to own thermal design and analysis for drones, aircraft, missiles, and related flight systems. You will apply first-principles heat transfer knowledge and select the right level of analysis, from hand calculations to FEA/CFD, to guide fast design decisions.

Work with electrical, mechanical, aerospace, software, and systems engineers to document power dissipation and thermal constraints; build and maintain thermal models; and

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

First-principles heat transfer

Thermal design & analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Security clearance

Education

MS or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field

Tools

STAR-CCM+

ANSYS

Icepak

Flotherm

MATLAB

Python

SolidWorks / NX CAD

Job description

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA is seeking a Thermal Engineer to own thermal design and analysis for drones, aircraft, missiles, and related flight systems. You will apply first-principles heat transfer knowledge and select the right level of analysis, from hand calculations to FEA/CFD, to guide fast design decisions.

Work with electrical, mechanical, aerospace, software, and systems engineers to document power dissipation and thermal constraints; build and maintain thermal models; and