Thermal CFD Engineer: Exhaust & Underbody Innovator

PACCAR; Mount Vernon (WA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 142,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

401k with company match

Pension plan

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Medical/dental/vision

FSA/HSA

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Employee assistance program

Growth opportunities

Job summary

The PACCAR Technical Center is seeking a Thermal and CFD Engineer for aftertreatment, exhaust, and underbody thermal management to drive innovation in heavy-duty truck development.

You will partner with Kenworth and Peterbilt engineering teams to predict design viability, validate concepts, and translate findings into actionable recommendations. This role emphasizes simulation-to-test correlation and cross-functional teamwork.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of engineering experience with CFD & Thermal Analysis.
• Experience in automotive/related industries.
• Strong understanding of heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics.
• Experience with CFD modeling: meshing, solver setup, boundary conditions, post-processing.
• Proficient in STAR-CCM+, Fluent, and TAITherm.
• CAD proficiency: Creo, SolidWorks, CATIA.

Responsibilities

• Perform 3D thermal and CFD analysis for exhaust and aftertreatment systems.
• Predict heat loss, temperatures, underhood and underbody temps, under various load cases.
• Evaluate DEF system thermal behavior, including doser, hoses, tank interfaces, and filling CFD needs.
• Develop design recommendations on insulation strategy, heat shields, component clearances, exhaust routing geometry, thermal protection.
• Support concept-phase architecture studies, DFMEA inputs, and comparative A/B trade studies.
• Correlate simulation with test/validation data and help build a reusable simulation-to-validation knowledge base.

Skills

CFD & Thermal Analysis

Heat transfer

Numerical methods

Problem solving

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

STAR-CCM+

Fluent

TAITherm

Creo

SolidWorks

CATIA

Job description

The PACCAR Technical Center is seeking a Thermal and CFD Engineer for aftertreatment, exhaust, and underbody thermal management to drive innovation in heavy-duty truck development.

You will partner with Kenworth and Peterbilt engineering teams to predict design viability, validate concepts, and translate findings into actionable recommendations. This role emphasizes simulation-to-test correlation and cross-functional teamwork.