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Salary: USD 160,000 - 211,000 / annual
Anduril Industries is seeking a Senior Thermal Engineer to own the thermal management of expeditionary AI/HPC data centers—air-transportable, modular compute and command-and-control infrastructure designed to operate at forward operating locations in austere, high-temperature environments with limited power.
You will apply deep expertise in heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and HVAC systems to ensure high-density compute runs reliably in extreme conditions. This is a full-lifecycle role spanning conceptual design through prototyping, lab and field testing, and operational deployment.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own thermal design and analysis of deployable data center cooling systems, including air-side and water-side cooling, heat rejection, chilled water plants, and liquid cooling from rack and chip level through full facility.
- Use first-principles analysis to determine appropriate modeling depth: hand calculations, spreadsheets, and MATLAB/Python first-order models before detailed design.
- Define cooling architecture and heat-rejection strategy (CRAH/CRAC, air-side economization, chilled water plants, dry coolers, CDUs, rear-door heat exchangers, direct-to-chip and immersion liquid cooling) to keep equipment within thermal limits as power density scales.
- Develop cooling approaches for high-density racks, trading off air, liquid, and hybrid cooling solutions for modular, transportable systems in austere, high-ambient environments.
- Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and facilities engineers to characterize IT and equipment heat loads across operating and failure modes.
- Conduct trade studies balancing cooling architectures against reliability, efficiency (PUE/WUE), and total cost, weighing thermal margin against capital and operating expenses.
- Own thermal FEA/CFD and system models; predict facility performance and set red/yellow operational limits for commissioning and operation.
- Lead prototype builds, field testing, commissioning, and operational validation of cooling designs, including CAD, sensor and DAQ selection, and data post-processing.
- Present thermal status at internal and customer reviews with clear visibility into timelines and technical status.
- Develop internal tools to improve analysis effectiveness and efficiency.
- Support failure reviews and root-cause analysis using test data and thermal analysis.
Requirements:
- MS or higher in mechanical engineering, applied physics, or related field focused on heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and HVAC.
- In-depth understanding of heat transfer and fluid dynamics.
- 5+ years designing thermal management systems for data centers or comparable mission-critical infrastructure.
- Full-spectrum data center thermal experience: air-side and water-side cooling, heat rejection, chilled water plant design, power density management, and liquid cooling.
- Steady-state and transient system modeling of thermal management systems, including HVAC and refrigerant simulations.
- Experience validating and testing data center thermal equipment with knowledge of applicable operating standards.
- Track record of staying current with latest data center thermal management technologies.
- CAD experience with Siemens NX or SolidWorks.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Coding in Python or MATLAB for lumped-capacitance steady-state and transient analysis.
- Thermal FEA/CFD experience with STAR-CCM+, ANSYS, Icepak, or FloEFD.
- Familiarity with efficiency metrics (PUE/WUE) and thermal design for high-density AI/HPC compute.
- Experience with modular, transportable, or ruggedized data centers operating in austere, high-ambient environments.
- Ability to obtain and hold a U.S. Secret security clearance.
