Senior Thermal Engineer

Shield AI, a leading defense-tech company, is seeking a Senior Thermal Engineer to join its team. As a Senior Thermal Engineer at Shield AI, you will own the design, analysis, and integration of aircraft avionics thermal management systems and electronics cooling.

Responsibilities:

• Own thermal solutions for unmanned aerial vehicle avionics including design, analysis, and test.
• Develop and validate analytical, numerical, and computational models for heat transfer and fluid flow using hand calculations and CFD tools such as FloEFD.
• Provide technical leadership in trade studies, system architecture decisions, and risk assessments.
• Drive test planning, instrumentation, and data analysis to correlate models with experimental results.
• Guide cross-disciplinary teams in applying thermal/fluid fundamentals.
• Communicate technical findings clearly through design reviews, and written reports.
• Proactively identify risks, propose solutions, and influence electrical and/or PCBA design direction.

Requirements:

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related discipline.
• Minimum 4 years of professional experience in avionics or electronics thermal engineering.
• Strong expertise in heat transfer (conduction, convection, radiation) and fluid mechanics.
• Strong understanding of active and passive cooling solutions and their integration at component and system level.
• Understanding of thermal management design elements including TIMs, spreaders, heat sinks, vapor chambers, heat pipes, and fans.
• Proficiency with thermal analysis and CFD tools (e.g., ANSYS Icepak, FloEFD, STAR-CCM+).
• Experience with CAD design tools such as NX, SolidWorks, or similar.
• Demonstrated experience applying first-principles reasoning to complex engineering problems.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven ability to learn and adapt quickly to new tools, processes, and technical challenges in a fast-paced, startup environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• M.S. in a relevant engineering discipline.
• Experience with high-altitude aircraft avionics cooling and thermal design.
• Familiarity with aircraft integration constraints (power, weight, volume, maintainability, safety).
• Hands-on experience with thermal and fluid system testing, instrumentation, and validation.
• Knowledge of materials and manufacturing methods relevant to thermal management.

Additional Information:

• Full-time regular employee offer package: Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity.
• Temporary employee offer package: Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment).