Thermal Engineer, AI Satellites (Starmind)

The role

You will own conjugate heat-transfer and thermal-fluid analysis for STARMIND satellite cooling components. You will also manage the system 0-D/1-D thermal-fluid network and co-evolve geometry and flow paths with hardware owners.

What you will do

• Own conjugate heat-transfer (CHT) and thermal-fluid analysis of high-performance cold plates, heat exchangers, and radiator channels for STARMIND satellites
• Own the system 0-D/1-D thermal-fluid network that sizes and balances the cooling loop
• Drive cooling-loop architecture trades with hardware and vehicle-level thermal teammates
• Co-evolve geometry, materials and processes with hardware owners
• Predict component and system performance under wide range of flow and thermal conditions
• Own pre-test prediction, test design, and model-test correlation for fluid component and integrated thermal tests
• Automate analysis workflows for re-running trades as designs and boundary conditions change

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, or a related engineering discipline
• 1+ years of professional experience in fluids, CFD, or thermal analysis
• Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission critical deadlines
• Some travel may occasionally be required

Nice to have

• Master’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, or a related engineering discipline
• Steady/transient conjugate heat-transfer CFD of liquid-cooled or high-heat-flux hardware (STAR-CCM+, ANSYS Fluent/CFX, or equivalent)
• Hand-calc checks and engineering judgment on mesh, turbulence modeling, and model fidelity
• Hands on hardware testing inclusive of instrumentation selection and model correlation
• Relevant manufacturing techniques, and judiciously pushing their constraints
• Watertight CFD geometry (Siemens NX or equivalent)
• Package/board-level tools as secondary (Icepak, Flotherm)
• 0-D/1-D thermal-fluid network modeling to size and balance cooling loops (flow split, ΔP budget, loop ΔT, pump operating point)
• Scripting analysis workflows and post-processing (Python preferred)

Before you apply

• Applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligibl

About the company

SpaceX is developing technologies to enable human life on Mars. The company is leveraging experience deploying the world's largest satellite constellation to develop Starmind, a new constellation of satellites capturing solar energy in space.