Spacecraft Thermal Engineer

Thermal Engineer (Mid to Senior) El Segundo, California | $102,000 to $182,000

Most thermal engineers at the big primes spend years on one box.

You own a unit model, you run the same analysis cycle, and the wider spacecraft belongs to someone else. You rarely get to see how your thermal design shapes the whole vehicle.

We’re working with a small satellite company in El Segundo that does things differently. They design, build and test complete spacecraft under one roof, and they move fast. They built and delivered a national security spacecraft in eight months, and they have a spacecraft on orbit for NASA today.

That changes what thermal looks like. You won’t be handed one corner of a programme. You’ll work across the whole spacecraft, and your models will drive real design decisions.

They’re hiring a Thermal Engineer at mid or senior level. Senior engineers lead thermal on their own projects. Mid level engineers get more support, or bring deep unit level experience and grow into the full spacecraft.

What you’ll need Thermal Desktop with SINDA/FLUINTA strong background in radiative heat transfer

Ideally 5 to 10 years, mostly spent in thermal

Launch vehicle thermal experience also works, if you’ve done space radiative work earlier in your career

What you get Thermal work across complete spacecraft, not one unit Hybrid working, with every other Friday offA company with flight heritage that’s still small enough to move quickly

Candidates moving from out of state are welcome, and interviews can be virtual

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Adam Slade