Thermal Engineer – Spacecraft Thermal Design & Simulation

Arraylabs.Io; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Commuter benefits

Job summary

Array Labs is seeking a Thermal Engineer to lead the thermal design of radar satellites and payloads, from architecture through flight verification. You will build, instrument, and test flight hardware, extend the in‑house thermal simulation framework, and collaborate with RF, electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers to ensure robust on‑orbit performance.

You will define heat rejection architectures, design radiators and conduction paths, and drive design decisions using validated models

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or STEM degree.
• 3+ years of industry experience fielding hardware in thermally‑constrained products.
• Strong coding proficiency preferably in Python and experience developing or extending engineering analysis tools — not just using them.
• Hands‑on experience building, instrumenting, and testing thermal hardware.
• Strong grounding in heat transfer fundamentals.
• Excellent teamwork and communication skills.
• Ability to work in a fast‑paced, iterative design environment.

Responsibilities

• Define spacecraft and payload thermal architecture, including radiator sizing and conduction paths from high‑power RF components to space.
• Own, extend, and validate Array’s in‑house Python thermal simulation framework, and use it to drive design decisions
• Support board‑and component‑level thermal design with electrical and RF engineers, including junction temperature and derating analysis.
• Design, build, and test thermal hardware: radiators, interface materials, coatings, MLI, heaters, and sensor instrumentation.
• Plan and execute thermal vacuum and thermal balance test campaigns, and correlate models against test and flight telemetry.
• Develop thermal requirements, interface control documentation, and verification plans with systems engineering.

Skills

Python programming

Thermal analysis

Team collaboration

Hands-on hardware testing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering

Master's or PhD preferred

Tools

Thermal Desktop

SINDA/FLUINT

ANSYS

Job description

Array Labs is seeking a Thermal Engineer to lead the thermal design of radar satellites and payloads, from architecture through flight verification. You will build, instrument, and test flight hardware, extend the in‑house thermal simulation framework, and collaborate with RF, electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers to ensure robust on‑orbit performance.

You will define heat rejection architectures, design radiators and conduction paths, and drive design decisions using validated models