Senior Principal Thermal Engineer

Hewlett Packard Enterprise • Sunnyvale, CA

2d • $181,000 - $367,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is seeking a recognized authority in advanced liquid cooling for high-performance networking, compute, and data-center hardware. The Senior Principal Thermal Engineer defines organization-wide thermal architectures, methodologies, and technology roadmaps for direct-to-chip cold-plate, manifold, coolant-distribution, immersion, hybrid air-liquid, and emerging two-phase cooling solutions. The role leads complex thermal programs from concept through production, addresses critical business and customer challenges, and drives lasting improvements in performance, reliability, time to market, cost, quality, and product differentiation.

The engineer influences executive and cross-functional decisions; guides development partners and suppliers; contributes to industry standards; mentors engineers; and strengthens HPE’s technical community. The position is designed as onsite, with the expectation that the employee will primarily work from an HPE office.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Sciences, or a closely related engineering discipline.
• Typically 15+ years of relevant engineering experience for the Senior Principal level.
• Extensive hands-on experience leading electronics thermal design and liquid-cooling development for complex products.
• Demonstrated technical impact on significant products, programs, or strategic architecture, including successful delivery across multiple NPI cycles.
• Deep expertise in single-phase liquid cooling and strong knowledge of immersion, dielectric fluids, refrigerant-based or two-phase technologies, and air-liquid hybrid architectures.
• Expert understanding of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermal resistance, boiling and dry-out limits, flow distribution, pressure drop, pump and heat-exchanger performance, and system controls.
• Strong knowledge of cold-plate and manifold design, materials, joining and sealing methods, leak and proof-pressure testing, cleanliness, corrosion, coolant chemistry, reliability, and field-service considerations.
• Advanced capability with CFD and thermal-network tools and proficiency with CAD tools such as SolidWorks or equivalent; ability to define organization-wide modeling, calibration, correlation, and validation methods.
• Experience designing for cost, manufacturability, reliability, safety, serviceability, energy efficiency, and sustainability.
• Strong analytical and creative problem-solving skills, sound engineering judgment, and ability to make decisions with incomplete or conflicting data.
• Demonstrated business acumen and program leadership, including prioritization, risk management, resource planning, supplier engagement, and negotiation.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, including the ability to explain nuanced concepts and influence working teams, business-unit leadership, and executives.

Nice To Haves

• An advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Sciences, or a closely related engineering discipline.
• Evidence of innovation through patents, publications, standards contributions, or deployment of differentiated cooling technologies.

Responsibilities

• Establish organization-wide thermal architectures, design methodologies, specifications, and validation practices for liquid-cooled hardware, and contribute to long-range technology roadmaps.
• Serve as a technical leader for direct liquid cooling, including cold plates, manifolds, quick disconnects, hoses and piping, pumps, heat exchangers, coolant distribution units, facility-water interfaces, immersion systems, hybrid cooling, and emerging two-phase solutions.
• Lead system-level thermal architecture, analysis, and design from concept and feasibility through qualification, NPI, manufacturing ramp, and sustaining engineering for high-power ASICs, optics, power components, and densely packed electronic modules.
• Perform and direct thermal-fluid CFD modeling using FloTHERM, FloEFD, Macroflow, or equivalent tools; correlate models with test data and use results to inform design decisions and improve margins.
• Define fluid, thermal, mechanical, reliability, serviceability, manufacturability, safety, and regulatory requirements, including flow and pressure budgets, pressure drop, temperature uniformity, material and coolant compatibility, corrosion control, leak prevention and detection, contamination control, and failure-response strategies.
• Develop and oversee validation plans and empirical testing for component, subsystem, chassis, rack, and facility interfaces; guide instrumentation, test execution, data analysis, and root-cause investigations.
• Review designs and project activities for compliance with technology, quality, reliability, and development standards, and drive recommendations and innovations into platform architectures.
• Evaluate and select technologies, suppliers, outsourced development partners, and manufacturing processes; oversee technical deliverables and resolve complex cross-organizational issues.
• Partner with mechanical, electrical, PCB, silicon, optics, firmware, systems, reliability, manufacturing, operations, service, sourcing, and data-center infrastructure teams to optimize system performance and lifecycle cost.
• Develop schedules, critical deliverables, resource plans, risk assessments, and support requirements for major programs; communicate progress, trade-offs, escalations, and issue analysis to senior and executive stakeholders.
• Influence business leadership, customers, partners, suppliers, and industry standards groups through domain expertise, business acumen, and clear technical communication.
• Drive invention, intellectual property, reusable design practices, and knowledge sharing; mentor less-experienced engineers and contribute to the HPE technical community.

Benefits

• A comprehensive suite of benefits supporting physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing.
• Career development programs supporting professional and career goals.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior