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Thermal Engineer, Environmental Control Systems

Anduril· Hardware Platform : Hardware Engineering Services
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Hybrid (Costa Mesa, CA), Costa Mesa, CA$129k - $171kFull-timePosted 2w ago

About the role

Thermal Engineer responsible for the thermal management and environmental control systems of air vehicles and advanced defense platforms, using first-principles heat transfer and fluid dynamics to ensure avionics, payloads, power, and propulsion stay within limits across the full mission envelope.

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.

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

Skills

Required:Thermal design and analysisFirst-principles heat transfer and fluid dynamicsThermal modeling tools

Benefits

  • Comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees)
Last updated Oct 7, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Anduril

defense-aero-and-safetyliquid-ai-recruiting-targetsetter-30setter-30-2026-q1wing-list-2026wing-list-2026-giga-stage
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