Shield AI
Principal Thermal Engineer - Aircraft Avionics & Thermal Systems (R3930)
Seattle, Washington · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 13, 2026
- Experience
- Minimum 12 years of professional experience in avionics or electronics thermal engineering; no alternative stated.
- Education
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related discipline.
About the job
Owns the technical direction and delivery of aircraft avionics thermal management and aircraft-level thermal/fluid systems, from architecture and analysis through integration, verification, and validation.
What you'll do
- Lead thermal architecture, analysis, design strategies, and cross-functional trade studies across aircraft programs.
- Develop and validate heat-transfer and fluid-flow models; define verification and validation strategies and correlate models with test results.
- Resolve system-level risks and interfaces, guide technical decisions, brief stakeholders, and mentor engineers.
What they ask for
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related discipline.
- Minimum 12 years of professional experience in avionics or electronics thermal engineering, including technical leadership of complex, multidisciplinary systems.
- Expertise in heat transfer and fluid mechanics, cooling solutions, and thermal management components and their integration.
- Proficiency with thermal analysis/CFD tools and CAD design tools; demonstrated ownership of thermal architecture and delivery from concept through validation.
Nice to have
- M.S. or Ph.D. in a relevant engineering discipline.
- Experience with high-altitude aircraft avionics cooling, aircraft thermal architecture, test strategy, or aerospace/defense customer interactions.
Tools
FloEFD, ANSYS Icepak, STAR-CCM+, NX, SolidWorks
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative