Observable Space
Sr. Spacecraft Thermal Engineer
$150K–$190K
Los Angeles, CA · On-site · Senior · Full-time · Posted Sep 10, 2026
- Experience
- 5+ years in thermal engineering for aerospace or high-performance systems.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent.
About the job
Designs and validates thermal control systems for telescope platforms and spacecraft, supporting thermal stability and optical performance across the product lifecycle.
What you'll do
- Design thermal control systems and develop thermal models and analyses, including STOP and FEA simulations.
- Define thermal requirements and verification strategies; support environmental testing and thermal model validation.
- Collaborate across engineering teams and support design reviews, fabrication, integration, and system validation.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent.
- 5+ years of thermal engineering experience in aerospace or high-performance systems.
- Strong understanding of heat transfer fundamentals.
- Experience with thermal analysis tools and developing and validating thermal models for complex systems.
Nice to have
- Spacecraft thermal control and space-environment experience; thermal vacuum testing, thermal cycling, and model correlation.
- FEA, tolerance analysis, DFM, thermal materials and interfaces, systems engineering, or scripting experience.
Pay
$150K – $190K USD base salary
Tools
Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, ANSYS, Nastran, Python, MATLAB
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative