Senior Thermal Engineer, Deployable AI/HPC Cooling

Anduril Industries; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 194,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive benefits

Equity grants

Job summary

Anduril Industries seeks a Senior Thermal Engineer to own deployable data center cooling for expeditionary AI/HPC infrastructure. You will lead heat-transfer analyses, design air-side and liquid cooling, and validate systems through testing and field deployments.

You’ll collaborate with electrical and mechanical teams to model loads, optimize PUE/WUE, and balance capital costs with performance. A security-clearable candidate is preferred and US work is required.

Qualifications

• MS or higher in mechanical engineering, applied physics, or related field focused on heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and HVAC
• 5+ years designing thermal management systems for data centers or comparable mission-critical infrastructure
• Full-spectrum data center thermal experience—air-side and water-side cooling, heat rejection, chilled water plant design, power density management, and liquid cooling
• Steady-state and transient system modeling of thermal management systems, including HVAC and refrigerant simulations

Responsibilities

• Own the thermal design and analysis of deployable data center cooling systems—air-side and water-side cooling, heat rejection, chilled water plant, and liquid cooling—from rack and chip level up through the full facility.
• Use first principles to discern the right level of analysis, running hand calcs, spreadsheets, and MATLAB/Python first-order models before detailed design.
• Define cooling architecture and heat-rejection strategy—CRAH/CRAC, air-side economization, chilled water plants, dry coolers, CDUs, rear-door heat exchangers, and direct-to-chip and immersion liquid cooling—to keep equipment within limits as power density scales.
• Develop cooling approaches for high-density racks and trade off air, liquid, and hybrid cooling for modular, transportable systems in austere, high-ambient environments.
• Work with electrical, mechanical, and facilities engineers to characterize IT and equipment heat loads across operating and failure modes.
• Weigh cooling architectures against reliability, efficiency (PUE/WUE), and total cost, driving trade studies that balance thermal margin with capital and operating cost.
• Own the thermal FEA/CFD and system models, predict facility performance, and set red/yellow limits for commissioning and operation.
• Lead prototype builds, field testing, commissioning, and operational validation of cooling designs (CAD, sensor and DAQ selection, data post-processing, results).

Skills

Heat transfer

Fluid dynamics

Thermal modeling

System-level design

Education

MS in mechanical engineering or related field

Tools

STAR-CCM+

ANSYS

Icepak

FloEFD

Siemens NX

SolidWorks

Job description

Anduril Industries seeks a Senior Thermal Engineer to own deployable data center cooling for expeditionary AI/HPC infrastructure. You will lead heat-transfer analyses, design air-side and liquid cooling, and validate systems through testing and field deployments.

You’ll collaborate with electrical and mechanical teams to model loads, optimize PUE/WUE, and balance capital costs with performance. A security-clearable candidate is preferred and US work is required.