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Lead Thermal Engineer

Starcloud· Engineering
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Redmond, WA$200k - $250kFull-timePosted 4mo ago

About the role

Lead role owning the thermal architecture, design, analysis, testing, and flight execution of the thermal control systems for space-based data centers. Hands-on leadership combining deep technical contribution with building and guiding the thermal engineering team, with rapid ground testing and in-orbit validation.

Responsibilities

  • Own the thermal architecture: active and passive thermal control across the spacecraft.
  • Design the active loop: cold plates, coolant loops, pumps, heat exchangers, thermal interfaces, insulation, heaters, and large lightweight deployable radiators.
  • Lead the hard trades: performance, mass, cost, reliability, manufacturability, schedule, and operational constraints.
  • Push novel concepts: prototype rapidly, test on the ground, validate in orbit.
  • Model and correlate: build and correlate thermal models for spacecraft, payloads, and subsystems against real test and flight data.
  • Deliver flight hardware end to end: concept through manufacturing, integration, test, qualification, and launch, improving across successive spacecraft.
  • Build the team: hire, manage, and mentor the thermal engineering team, and set the standards, review practices, and verification workflows.

Qualifications

  • BS in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
  • 8+ years of hands-on thermal engineering: design, analysis, hardware development, and test.
  • Strong command of thermal analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop, Ansys, or equivalent.
  • Experience with active thermal control in a demanding environment: space, power, automotive, data center, food/manufacturing, or petroleum.
  • Comfortable managing engineers while staying deeply hands-on.

Skills

Required:Thermal architecture designThermal modeling and correlationDesign of active thermal loopsProject leadership and people management

Benefits

  • stock options
  • discretionary bonuses
  • medical
  • vision
  • dental
  • 401(k) with company match
  • disability and life insurance
  • paid parental leave
  • vacation
  • holidays
  • sick leave
Last updated Jul 15, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Starcloud

Data centers in space

(Formerly known as Lumen Orbit) Starcloud is building data centers in space, initially to provide GPU compute to other satellites, and later to address the rapidly growing demand for energy caused by the deployment of AI. Falling launch costs give us access to abundant energy, passive cooling, and the ability to rapidly scale in space. In Partnership with NVIDIA's Inception Program, we are launching our demonstrator satellite in late 2025, which will have 100x more powerful GPUs than have ever been operated in space.

artificial-intelligencehard-techsatellitesclimatecloud-computing
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