Description
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).