Thermal Engineer

EVONA; California (MO); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

EVONA is seeking a Senior Manager CFD & Control Systems to lead thermal and fluid systems for human spaceflight hardware. The role blends hands-on hardware ownership with team leadership, spanning architecture, trades, and design reviews.

You’ll own thermal control hardware end-to-end—from design through manufacture, qualification, launch prep and on-orbit operation, with cross-discipline collaboration and strict safety requirements.

Qualifications

• Degree in mechanical engineering or similar.
• 5+ years hands-on hardware experience — fabrication, assembly, test.
• Real fluid systems background: pumped loops, coolant loops, propellant feed or similar.
• Some experience leading or mentoring engineers (formal reports not essential — tech leads count).
• Nice to have: NX, GD&T and tolerance stack-ups, structural calcs, FEMAP or ANSYS, and familiarity with machining, welding and tube bending.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small team of mechanical engineers and own architecture.
• Trade studies and front-line hardware development from concept through launch prep.
• Collaborate across avionics, software and mission ops during development and operation.

Skills

Hands-on hardware

Fluid systems

Leadership

First-principles solving

Education

Mechanical engineering degree

Tools

NX

GD&T

FEMAP

ANSYS

Machining

Welding

Job description

We're partnered with a well-funded human spaceflight company building crewed orbital infrastructure. They've already flown and operated their own spacecraft, they're more than a thousand people, and the next vehicle is on the manifest. This is hardware going to orbit, not a roadmap.

They're hiring a Senior Manager CFD & Control Systems to lead the thermal and fluid systems that keep people alive in space.

THE ROLE

This is a player-coach job. You'd lead a small team of mechanical engineers, but you'd also be in the hardware yourself — owning architecture, running the trades, and standing up in front of design reviews.

You'd own the thermal control hardware end to end: tubing, trays and pumped fluid loops, taken from early design trades through manufacture, qualification, launch prep and on-orbit operation. It's human-rated, so reliability and safety requirements are real, and you'd be working across avionics, software and mission ops throughout.

The pace is fast. They prototype, test early, break things and iterate — and they care a lot about designs their technicians can actually build.

WHAT THEY'RE LOOKING FOR

• Degree in mechanical engineering or similar
• 5+ years hands-on hardware experience — fabrication, assembly, test
• Real fluid systems background: pumped loops, coolant loops, propellant feed or similar
• Some experience leading or mentoring engineers (formal reports not essential — tech leads count)
• Strong first-principles problem solving and root-cause work

Nice to have: rotating machinery — pumps, compressors, rotating seals or fluid transfer across a rotating interface. This one genuinely matters to them and is worth flagging if you have it. Also NX, GD&T and tolerance stack-ups, structural hand calcs, FEMAP or ANSYS, and familiarity with machining, welding, brazing and tube bending.

WORTH KNOWING BEFORE YOU APPLY

• Onsite in Long Beach, five days. Relocation is on the table for the right person.
• Occasional evenings and weekends during critical mission phases.
• US Person required under ITAR — US citizen, national, green card holder, or asylee/refugee with status granted.
• They calibrate level and package to the person, so the range has genuine flex in both directions. Strong senior engineers ready for a first formal leadership step are in scope.

This is the kind of role where your fluid loop has a serial number and a launch date