Senior Thermal Engineer - TeraWave
About The Position
Blue Origin is seeking a Senior Thermal Engineer for TeraWave, its satellite communications network. The engineer will own the thermal design of phased array antennas for satellite payloads and ground user terminals. The role treats thermal performance as a first-order product constraint, balancing temperature, capacity, radiator area, size, mass, manufacturability, and unit cost. The engineer will develop transient thermal models for dense multi-chip board stacks, design thermal interfaces and heat-rejection solutions, and establish duty-cycle and operational limits in coordination with operations and planning teams. The role also includes architecture trades, requirements and verification planning, thermal testing and model correlation, and designing solutions for repeatable high-rate production. The engineer will mentor other engineers and help define thermal engineering practices as the program scales.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
- At least 8 years of thermal engineering experience in aerospace, RF systems, or high-power-density electronics.
- Spaceborne thermal design experience, including vacuum, radiation heat transfer, and flight hardware qualification.
- Strong understanding of phased array thermal challenges, including dense front-end integration, high areal power density, and the coupling between junction temperature and RF efficiency.
- Proficiency with thermal modeling tools such as Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, ANSYS Icepak, or equivalent, and sound judgment about when hand calculations should bracket a model.
- Working knowledge of materials, coatings, and interface technologies for space and outdoor terrestrial hardware.
- Familiarity with environmental and qualification standards such as NASA, ESA, and MIL-STD or similar.
- Systems thinking and ability to work across RF, silicon, structures, power, avionics, operations, and manufacturing.
- Willingness to state thermal limits early, including when they constrain another team's design.
- Comfort working while requirements are still being developed and using analysis to help define them.
- Ability to reduce coupled physics problems to actionable decisions and communicate clearly with technical peers and program leadership.
Nice To Haves
- Master's or PhD in a related field.
- Experience with both space and terrestrial antenna systems, particularly electronically steered arrays.
- Experience with advanced thermal techniques such as phase change materials, heat pipes, vapor chambers, loop heat pipes, or liquid cooling.
- Board- and package-level thermal experience, including TIM characterization, BGA and lid paths, and junction-to-case resistance.
- Experience taking hardware from prototype into volume production, including cost and mass optimization at rate.
- Experience with transient thermal analysis coupled to operational planning.
Responsibilities
- Own thermal architecture for satellite phased array payloads, including RF front ends, beamforming ICs, and power electronics, as well as ground terminal arrays.
- Build and run transient thermal models of dense multi-chip board stacks, from die junctions through structure and radiators.
- Drive thermal interface design, including mounting and preload, interface materials and bondlines, heat pipes, spreaders, and thermal storage.
- Define duty-cycle and operational limits for the constellation with operations and planning teams.
- Run architecture-level trades and quantify effects in temperature, mass, and unit cost.
- Set thermal requirements, margins, and verification plans; execute thermal test articles and correlate models to test results.
- Design thermal solutions for repeatable high-rate production.
- Mentor engineers and help establish thermal engineering practices on a fast-scaling program.
Benefits
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Basic and supplemental life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- Short- and long-term disability
- 401(k) with company match up to 5%
- Education Support Program
- Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week
- Up to four weeks of paid time off per year based on weekly scheduled hours
- Up to 14 company-paid holidays
- Depending on role type and job level, possible benefits and bonuses based on individual contributions and company results
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
