Thermal Associate Engineer (Summer 2027)

Astranis Space Technologies; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 86,000 - 106,000; Part time

Job summary

Astranis Space Technologies is seeking a Thermal Engineer Associate for Summer 2027. The role involves hands-on hardware and software work, thermal analysis, and collaboration with the engineering team on satellite systems.

This is a twelve‑week, salaried program designed for students who have completed or will complete a bachelor’s degree before joining Astranis. Past associates have contributed to spaceflight hardware destined for our first satellites and many have moved into full‑time roles.

Qualifications

• Four-year degree in mechanical, aerospace, or equivalent technical field.
• Passion for hardware development in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated ability to design, build, and test hardware from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with engineering to design, analyze, build, and test satellite hardware/software.
• Perform thermal analysis from simple to detailed for various hardware types.
• Design, evaluate, procure, and test thermal solutions like heaters and heat pipes.
• Develop integration/assembly processes to ensure thermal design intent is met.

Skills

Hardware design

Thermal analysis

Test & verification

CAD

Education

Bachelor's degree in mechanical/aerospace

Tools

CAD

ANSYS

Thermal Desktop

Job description

Astranis builds advanced satellites for high orbits, expanding humanity’s reach into the solar system. Today Astranis satellites provide dedicated, secure networks to highly-sophisticated customers across the globe – large enterprises, sovereign governments, and the US military.

With five satellites on orbit and many more set to launch soon, the company is servicing a backlog of more than $1 billion of commercial contracts. Astranis is the preferred satellite communications partner for buyers with stringent requirements for uptime, data security, network visibility, and customization.

Astranis has raised over $1.2 billion from some of the world’s best investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Blackrock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and Snowpoint, and employs a team of 500 engineers and entrepreneurs. Astranis designs, builds, and operates its satellites out of its 153,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Northern California, USA.

Thermal Engineer Associate (Summer 2027)

Associate Engineer positions typically last for twelve weeks, and are salaried roles designed for students who have already received a bachelor's degree (or who will have done so before working at Astranis).

As an Associate Engineer, you will have an amazing opportunity to work on hard problems — we pride ourselves on giving everyone at Astranis a chance to do meaningful work on complex projects, and our Associate Engineers work on projects that are of equal importance and difficulty to the projects we give our full-time employees. Many past Associate Engineers have designed and tested hardware/software that is heading to space on our first satellite, and many now work at Astranis full-time.

If you are still a college student, please apply to join us as an Intern.

Role

• Work together with the engineering team to design, analyze, build, and test satellite hardware and/or software.
• Support design trades that successfully balance performance margins, resource use, risk, cost, and schedule.
• Perform thermal analysis to varying degrees of fidelity (simplified to detailed) on a variety of different types of hardware such as propulsion components, batteries, high powered electronics, RF components, mechanisms, and printed circuit boards (PCBs).
• Design, evaluate, procure and test thermal solutions such as heaters, heat pipes, thermal interface materials, and surface coatings.
• Develop processes and procedures for integration and assembly which ensure thermal design intent is met. Collaborate with the integration and test team in the installation of thermal hardware as needed.
• Plan and run thermal vacuum testing and verification at the component and spacecraft level.

Requirements

• Have a four-year degree in mechanical, aerospace, or equivalent technical degree (e.g. physics or applied math)
• A passion and enthusiasm for hardware development, including working in a fast‑paced environment and hands‑on design and development
• Demonstrated ability to personally design, build, and test hardware from scratch.
• US Citizenship or Green Card
• Don't meet them all? Not a problem. Please apply even if you do not meet all these criteria.

Bonus

• Experience with CAD
• Experience with analytical software thermal analysis such as ANSYS and Thermal Desktop
• Experience with electronics systems design and packaging
• Experience (projects or previous internships) related to aerospace

Base Salary

The base salary for this position is $1,925 per week.

$1,925—$1,925 USD

U.S. Citizenship, Lawful Permanent Residency, Or Refugee/Asylee Status Required

(To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States, or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3))

Our mission and products are built for everyone, regardless of gender, race, creed, or background. We believe in a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we invite all people to join our team and bring their unique perspectives to make us stronger.