Thermal Design Engineer

Base Power Company • Austin, TX

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time. We are seeking a Thermal Design Engineer to own thermal management for high-power-density electronics and other thermally demanding systems. This person works from first principles—pairing deep heat-transfer intuition with simulation, hand calcs, and real hardware testing—to design cooling solutions that are quiet, reliable, and effective. They own air cooling and heat-sink design as the core of the role, with active cooling (liquid loops, vapor compression) and the NVH behavior of pumps and fans as key parts of the job.

Requirements

• 4+ years in thermal design for electronics or other thermally demanding systems.
• Expert-level heat transfer—strong first-principles command of conduction, convection, and radiation, with excellent physical intuition.
• Strong first-principles thermodynamics, including psychrometrics.
• Broad, deep familiarity with heat-sink technologies and when to use each.
• Proficiency with CFD and thermal FEA, with the discipline to pair simulation with hand calcs and test data rather than relying on it alone.
• Strong working knowledge of vapor-compression refrigeration.
• Hands-on experience selecting, testing, and characterizing fans and pumps, including their NVH behavior—what makes them loud and how to quiet them.
• CAD proficiency; able to develop and communicate thermal designs (production part design optional).

Nice To Haves

• Experience optimizing high-volume testers for cycle time and throughput.
• Familiarity with test data infrastructure and databases for storing and analyzing production results.
• Experience implementing and interfacing a variety of sensor types in a test context.
• Background reducing false-reject rates and improving yield through measurement and fixture improvements.
• Experience standing up testers quickly for prototype or early-production builds.
• Strong communication skills and a track record of cross-functional work with hardware, firmware, and manufacturing teams.
• Experience with acoustic/NVH measurement and mitigation in air-moving systems.
• Experience designing liquid cooling loops (cold plates, pumps, heat exchangers).
• Experience taking thermal designs from concept through test correlation and production.
• Familiarity with high-heat-flux electronics cooling.

Responsibilities

• Own the thermal architecture and design for high-power-density systems—from first-principles analysis through detailed design, validation, and hardware bring-up.
• Lead air-cooling and heat-sink design across the full range of technologies (extruded, skived, bonded-fin, vapor chambers, heat pipes), selecting and sizing the right approach for each application.
• Use CFD and thermal FEA as one tool among several—always paired with hand calcs, first-principles reasoning, and test correlation. Simulation supports the design; it is not the whole job.
• Select, characterize, and test fans and pumps—understanding what drives their performance, reliability, and acoustic/NVH behavior, and designing to keep systems quiet.
• Apply vapor-compression and liquid-loop cooling where needed, including the relevant psychrometrics and refrigeration fundamentals.
• Develop thermal designs in CAD and work with mechanical engineers to carry them into production hardware (production part design is not the primary focus).
• Build test setups to characterize thermal performance and acoustics, and validate designs against first-principles predictions.

Benefits

• Our Values First Principles Thinking: Question assumptions. Principles > rules.
• Operate at Base Pace: Focus on what matters, act quickly, and learn by doing.
• Give & Get Feedback: Be direct, be humble, and maintain a growth mindset.
• Everyone’s an Owner: Follow through on commitments and own results.
• Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Drive clarity and make calls with imperfect information.
• Committed to the Mission: Rebuilding the grid is a big challenge. We work hard because we care deeply about the impact we’re creating. We work in-person. It’s not a 9-to-5. We are all-in.
• Fun & Optimism Coexist with Grit: Collaboration and celebration coincide with the intensity of building real things.
• Do the best work of your life at Base.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed