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Salary: USD 129,000 - 171,000 / annual
Anduril Industries is a defense technology company transforming U.S. and allied military capabilities through advanced technology. The Thermal Engineering team enables rapid hardware development by ensuring advanced defense systems perform reliably in demanding real-world environments.
In this role, you will own the thermal design and analysis of electronics across a diverse product portfolio spanning air vehicles (fixed-wing and rotorcraft), maritime and ground systems, and wearables/body-worn devices. You will bring deep expertise in heat transfer and fluid dynamics to hardware that must survive operational environments.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own thermal design and analysis of electronics from board and component level through enclosures and full assemblies
- Use first-principles analysis and execute hand calculations, spreadsheets, and MATLAB/Python models to inform design decisions
- Define thermal architecture and heat-rejection paths (conduction, natural/forced convection, cold plates, heat sinks, heat pipes, thermal interface materials, coatings) to keep components within temperature limits
- Establish hot, cold, and edge-case operating conditions based on industry standards and intended use, accounting for altitude/flight envelopes, salt fog/humidity, solar load, and human-contact limits
- Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers to characterize component power dissipation
- Communicate thermal trade-offs and drive studies balancing thermal margin against size, weight, and power
- Own thermal FEA/CFD models and define red/yellow design limits for test and operation
- Define and execute prototype builds and thermal tests (CAD, sensor selection, DAQ, data post-processing)
- Present thermal status at formal reviews internally and with customers
- Develop internal tools to improve analysis effectiveness and efficiency
- Support failure reviews and root-cause analysis
REQUIREMENTS:
- MS or higher degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, applied physics, or related field with focus on heat transfer and fluid dynamics (BS with additional experience considered)
- In-depth understanding of heat transfer and fluid dynamics fundamentals
- 2–4 years of experience in thermal design, analysis, or testing for electronics or integrated hardware products (graduate research with hands-on experimental work counts)
- Familiarity with electronics cooling concepts: component and board-level thermal management, TIMs, heat sinks, heat pipes, cold plates, enclosure heat rejection
- Exposure to thermal testing: sensor selection, data acquisition, data post-processing
- Experience with at least one thermal FEA/CFD tool (STAR-CCM+, ANSYS, Icepak, FloEFD, COMSOL)
- CAD experience with Siemens NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent
- Passion for defending the United States and allies
- Ability to obtain and hold U.S. Top Secret security clearance
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Experience developing code in Python or MATLAB for thermal analysis (lumped-capacitance models, transient analysis, data post-processing)
- Exposure to thermal design across multiple product classes (air vehicles, maritime/ground systems, electronics enclosures, wearable/body-worn devices)
- Familiarity with defense/aerospace environmental standards (e.g., MIL-STD-810) or thermal derating of electronic components
- Exposure to active cooling approaches (fans, TECs, liquid cooling, two-phase systems)
- Experience with thermal architecture trade studies balancing thermal margin against SWaP constraints
