Vast
Senior Thermal Engineer
$148K–$210K
Long Beach, California, United States · Senior · Full-time · Posted Jun 8, 2026
- Experience
- 6+ years of spacecraft or aerospace thermal engineering experience.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
About the job
Define the thermal architecture and lead thermal analysis and design for a high-power, production-scale spacecraft bus from early studies through flight delivery.
What you'll do
- Define thermal control architecture and perform system- and component-level analysis across payload configurations.
- Own thermal models and budgets; plan TVAC testing and correlate models with test data.
- Select thermal materials and sensors, and support solar-array and avionics thermal design.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Spacecraft or aerospace thermal engineering experience, including spacecraft thermal control design and analysis of passive and active systems.
- Built and correlated thermal models for flight hardware; experience with high-power thermal challenges and TVAC test planning and execution.
- Experience with multiple thermal analysis tools (Thermal Desktop, SINDA, ESATAN, or equivalent); familiarity with thermal coatings, MLI, radiators, heat pipes, and thermal straps.
Nice to have
- Able to obtain a security clearance.
- Experience with multi-satellite builds, high-power-density or variable-duty-cycle payload thermal design, or cryogenic/specialized thermal control.
Pay
$147,600 — $209,520 USD (base salary)
Tools
Nvidia, Thermal Desktop, SINDA, ESATAN, AZ-93, S13G, Kapton, Aeroglaze
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative