Thermal Engineer, ECS for Defense Avionics

Telemetry Today LLC; Costa Mesa (CA); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 171,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA is seeking a Thermal Engineer to own the thermal management and environmental control systems (ECS) for air vehicles and other defense platforms. You will apply first-principles heat transfer and fluid dynamics to keep avionics, payloads, power, and propulsion within limits across the full mission envelope.

You will develop steady-state and transient models in tools such as Simcenter Amesim, Simscape, or GT-SUITE, size heat exchangers and components, and work

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
• Strong first-principles understanding of heat transfer and fluid dynamics, including conduction, convection, radiation, fluid flow, and transient thermal behavior
• Experience using thermal analysis, modeling, simulation, and/or physical test data to drive design decisions for passive or active thermal management systems
• Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs clearly across engineering, program, and customer stakeholders
• Ability to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Responsibilities

• Own the thermal design and analysis of vehicle thermal management and ECS—air-cycle, ram-air, bleed-air, and liquid cooling loops—from component and cold plate level up through the full vehicle.
• Use first principles to discern the right level of analysis, running hand calcs, spreadsheets, and MATLAB/Python first-order models before detailed design.
• Define thermal management architecture and heat-sink strategy—ram-air and air-cycle cooling, vapor-cycle systems, liquid coolant loops, fuel as a heat sink, and thermal energy storage—to keep equipment within limits as heat loads scale.
• Size and rate heat exchangers, cold plates, pumps, fans, and valves, and evaluate vendor hardware against system requirements.
• Develop steady-state and transient system models of coolant, fuel, hydraulic, and lubrication circuits in tools such as Simcenter Amesim, Simscape, or GT-SUITE to predict performance across ground, climb, cruise, and off-nominal conditions.
• Work with avionics, propulsion, power, structures, and systems engineers to characterize heat loads and define thermal requirements and interfaces across operating and failure modes.
• Weigh thermal architectures against performance, weight, power draw, reliability, and cost, driving trade studies that balance thermal margin with vehicle-level impact.
• Own the thermal system models, correlate them to test and flight data, and set red/yellow limits for test and operation.
• Lead prototype builds, ground testing, and validation of thermal management and ECS designs (CAD, sensor and DAQ selection, data post-processing, results).
• Present thermal status and tradeoffs at internal and customer reviews with a clear view of timelines and technical status.
• Develop internal tools to improve analysis effectiveness and efficiency.
• Support failure reviews and root-cause analysis with test data and thermal analysis

Skills

First-principles heat transfer & fluid

Thermal analysis & modeling

Clear communication of tradeoffs

U.S. Top Secret clearance

Education

MS or PhD in Mechanical / Aerospace Engineering or Applied Physics

Tools

Simcenter Amesim

Simscape

GT-SUITE

MATLAB

Python

Excel

CAD (Siemens NX / SolidWorks)

Job description

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA is seeking a Thermal Engineer to own the thermal management and environmental control systems (ECS) for air vehicles and other defense platforms. You will apply first-principles heat transfer and fluid dynamics to keep avionics, payloads, power, and propulsion within limits across the full mission envelope.

You will develop steady-state and transient models in tools such as Simcenter Amesim, Simscape, or GT-SUITE, size heat exchangers and components, and work