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Salary: USD 146,000 - 194,000 / 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-ambient environments with extreme temperatures and limited power.
You will apply deep expertise in heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and HVAC systems to keep high-density compute running reliably in contested environments. Your responsibilities include:
• Own the full thermal design and analysis of deployable data center cooling systems, from rack and chip level through facility-wide architecture, including air-side and water-side cooling, heat rejection, chilled water plants, and liquid cooling solutions.
• Use first-principles analysis to determine appropriate modeling approaches—hand calculations, spreadsheets, and MATLAB/Python first-order models before advancing to 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 maintain equipment within operating limits as power density scales.
• Develop cooling approaches for high-density racks and trade 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, driving decisions that balance thermal margin with capital and operating expenses.
• Own thermal FEA/CFD and system models, predict facility performance, and establish red/yellow operational limits for commissioning and deployment.
• 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 with focus 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 (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
