Senior Thermal Engineering Technical Leader

The application window is expected to close on: 10/29/2026

This role requires being onsite in San Jose, CA at least 4 days/week.

Meet the Team The Common Hardware Group (CHG) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco’s core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. Our innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms—like Silicon One—are shaping the technology industry. We're a global team of creative experts, bringing our unique backgrounds and bold ideas to push boundaries and help each other grow.

Because full product development—from design to qualification to production—is within our team, we’re able to think differently, experiment more, and work quickly. Join us to power the future of the digital world.

Your Impact Design and develop thermal solutions (air cooled or liquid cooled) for systems with high-power ASICs and high-density optical transceivers.

Develop detailed package, board, and system level simulations using Computational Fluid Dynamic tools such as Flotherm or Icepak to simulate and analyze thermal solutions.

Collaborate with Distinguished Engineers and Hardware leads on system architectures and cooling.

Perform thermal testing (including airflow, acoustic, thermocouple testing, modules, and/or platform level validations) to validate simulation models.

Lead and mentor other thermal engineers in the group.

Collaborate with mechanical engineers and other cross-functional teams to identify risks, derive tradeoffs and deliver objective, data-driven solutions.

Develop test plans and test reports and present simulations reports to project team and management.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelors in Mechanical or Thermal Engineering + 12 years of related experience, or Masters in Mechanical or Thermal Engineering + 8 years of related experience, or PhD in Mechanical or Thermal Engineering + 5 years of related experience.
5+ years of experience in design, simulation, and testing of thermal solutions for electronic devices and systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

3+ years of relevant experience in the thermal design of telecom, compute, or networking equipment.

Experience in use of Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis tools such as Flotherm or Icepak.

Knowledge and experience with advanced air-cooling technologies (vapor chamber and remote heat sinks, thermal interface materials, fans/fan trays).

Experience with designing liquid cooling and/or immersion cooling systems.

Experience with performing other analysis such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Data Center cooling simulations.

Experience with 3D MCAD modeling tools such as PTC's Creo or NX.Why Cisco? At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you. Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $ to $ and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive…