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Thermal Engineer

Dispatch
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Hybrid (San Francisco, CA)Full-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Founding thermal engineer role responsible for the thermal architecture of Spark-1, a 150 kg reentry vehicle that hosts payloads in orbit and returns them to Earth. Involves modeling, hardware integration, and cross-discipline collaboration at an early-stage space hardware startup.

Responsibilities

  • Define the spacecraft thermal architecture and carry it from trade studies through CDR and into flight
  • Build and own the vehicle thermal model in Thermal Desktop, Simcenter Space Systems Thermal, or ESATAN-TMS
  • Design the thermal control hardware, including heaters and control zones, radiators, MLI, coatings, straps, and the conductive paths through structure
  • Define payload thermal interfaces and the thermal section of the payload user's guide
  • Work the couplings with the other subsystems, since attitude drives the sun cases, the power budget drives dissipation, and the heat shield sets the reentry boundary
  • Plan and run thermal balance and thermal vacuum tests, correlate the model, and carry the margins to flight

Qualifications

  • 3+ years in spacecraft thermal engineering on flight or flight-relevant programs
  • You have owned the thermal architecture of a spacecraft or a major subsystem, and can explain the trades you made and how they held up
  • Proficiency in Thermal Desktop, Simcenter Space Systems Thermal, or ESATAN-TMS, with a model you built that flew or went through thermal vacuum
  • Thermal balance and thermal vacuum test experience, including correlating the model afterward
  • Comfortable with the hardware, so heaters, thermistors, blankets, straps, and interface fillers are things you have specified and installed
  • Comfortable working across disciplines at an early-stage company
  • Must be a US person. US export control (ITAR/EAR) requires this.

Skills

Required:Thermal architectureThermal modelingThermal DesktopSimcenter Space Systems ThermalESATAN-TMSThermal balance testing
Last updated Oct 25, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Dispatch

Satellites for manufacturing in space

Dispatch is building refurbishable reentry vehicles that host and return payloads for companies making ultra-high-value materials (semiconductors, biotech, and pharma) that can only be manufactured in space. Right now, these companies have no practical way to manufacture and get their products back to Earth. We solve this bottleneck. We just returned from the Mojave Desert testing our first full-scale reentry heat shield designed to protect the satellite as it returns from space at Mach 20+, built in an apartment for 100x cheaper than competitors. To test, we held it behind a rocket engine to simulate the forces of atmospheric reentry. IT WORKED! Watch here - https://youtu.be/dhlQmnIoptg To scale, we anchor permanent infrastructure in orbit - building high power Autonomous Space Stations designed from day one for "lights-out" manufacturing serviced by the reentry vehicles.

ManufacturingAerospaceAdvanced Materials
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