- Robot type
- Drone · Defense
- Location
- SeattleWashingtonUSA
- Job type
- Hardware
- Posted
- Nov 14, 2025
- Salary
- $200,000–$310,000 a year
Full-time
Sr. Staff Thermal Engineer - Aircraft Avionics & Thermal Systems (R3930)
Job description
Shield AI — Sr. Staff Thermal Engineer - Aircraft Avionics & Thermal Systems (R3930) (Seattle, Washington).
Job responsibilities
- Contribute to thermal analysis and design efforts for unmanned aerial vehicle avionics and thermal/fluid systems.
- Develop and validate analytical, numerical, and computational models for heat transfer and fluid flow using hand calculations and CFD tools such as FloEFD.
- Drive test planning, instrumentation, and data analysis to correlate models with experimental results.
- Communicate technical findings clearly through executive-level briefings, design reviews, and written reports.
- Proactively identify risks, propose solutions, and influence electrical and/or PCBA design direction.
Job requirements
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related discipline.
- Minimum 7 years of professional experience in avionics or electronics thermal engineering.
- Strong expertise in heat transfer (conduction, convection, radiation) and fluid mechanics.
- Deep understanding of active and passive cooling solutions and their integration at component and system level.
- Deep understanding of thermal management design elements including TIMs, spreaders, heat sinks, vapor chambers, heat pipes, and fans
- Proficiency with thermal analysis and CFD tools (e.g., ANSYS Icepak, FloEFD, STAR-CCM+).
- Proficiency with CAD design tools such as NX, SolidWorks, or similar.
- Demonstrated experience applying first-principles reasoning to complex engineering problems.
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