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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-temperature environments with limited power.
You will apply deep expertise in heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and HVAC to keep high-density compute running reliably in extreme conditions. Your responsibilities span the full development lifecycle from conceptual design through prototyping, lab and field testing, and operational deployment.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own thermal design and analysis of deployable data center cooling systems (air-side, water-side, heat rejection, chilled water plants, liquid cooling) from rack and chip level through full facility
- Use first-principles analysis and modeling (hand calcs, spreadsheets, MATLAB/Python) to inform detailed design decisions
- Define cooling architecture and heat-rejection strategy, selecting among CRAH/CRAC, air-side economization, chilled water plants, dry coolers, CDUs, rear-door heat exchangers, and direct-to-chip/immersion liquid cooling
- Develop cooling approaches for high-density racks, trading off air, liquid, and hybrid 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 thermal trade studies balancing reliability, efficiency (PUE/WUE), and total cost of ownership
- Own thermal FEA/CFD and system models, predict facility performance, and establish operational limits for commissioning
- Lead prototype builds, field testing, commissioning, and operational validation (CAD, sensor/DAQ selection, data analysis)
- Present thermal status at internal and customer reviews with clear visibility into timelines and technical status
- Develop internal tools to improve analysis effectiveness
- Support failure reviews and root-cause analysis using test data and thermal analysis
Required qualifications: MS or higher in mechanical engineering, applied physics, or related field with focus on heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and HVAC; 5+ years designing thermal management systems for data centers or comparable mission-critical infrastructure; full-spectrum data center thermal experience; steady-state and transient system modeling; validation and testing experience; CAD proficiency (Siemens NX or SolidWorks).
Preferred: Python/MATLAB coding; thermal FEA/CFD (STAR-CCM+, ANSYS, Icepak, FloEFD); PUE/WUE metrics and high-density AI/HPC thermal design; modular/ruggedized data center experience; ability to obtain U.S. Secret security clearance.
