Thermal Mechanical Engineer

PsiQuantum•Milpitas, CA

14h•$100,000 - $160,000

About The Position

PsiQuantum's mission is to build the first useful quantum computers—machines capable of delivering the breakthroughs the field has long promised. Since our founding in 2016, our singular focus has been to build and deploy million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum systems. Quantum computers harness the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that even the most advanced supercomputers or AI systems will never reach. Their impact will span energy, pharmaceuticals, finance, agriculture, transportation, materials, and other foundational industries. Our architecture and approach is based on silicon photonics. By leveraging the advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry—including partners like GlobalFoundries—we use the same high-volume processes that already produce billions of chips for telecom and consumer electronics. Photonics offers natural advantages for scale: photons don’t feel heat, are immune to electromagnetic interference, and integrate with existing cryogenic cooling and standard fiber-optic infrastructure. In 2024, PsiQuantum announced government-funded projects to support the build-out of our first utility-scale quantum computers in Brisbane, Australia, and Chicago, Illinois. These initiatives reflect a growing recognition that quantum computing will be strategically and economically defining—and that now is the time to scale. PsiQuantum also develops the algorithms and software needed to make these systems commercially valuable. Our application, software, and industry teams work directly with leading Fortune 500 companies—including Lockheed Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Mitsubishi Chemical—to prepare quantum solutions for real-world impact. Quantum computing is not an extension of classical computing. It represents a fundamental shift—and a path to mastering challenges that cannot be solved any other way. The potential is enormous, and we have a clear path to make it real. Come join us. The system engineering department is hiring a thermal mechanical engineer. You will be responsible for performing structural and thermal simulations to optimize the design of electro-optical sub-assemblies. Your work will directly impact on the performance and reliability of our quantum computer sub-systems.

Requirements

M.Sc., or Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Physics or related field.
5+years of hands-on modeling and simulation experience in the semiconductor industry.
Strong understanding of thermal conduction and convective heat transfer methodologies.
Deep knowledge of solid mechanics principles, including stress, strain, fatigue, creep, constitutive models of elastic, visco-plastic, and plastic materials.
Proficiency with simulation tools such as ANSYS (Mechanical, Icepak and Fluent), COMSOL, or equivalent, including nonlinear and transient analyses.
Working knowledge of lab-scale validation techniques.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Ansys AEDT and Ansys Sherlock.
Understanding advanced semiconductor packaging, solder joints, and reliability modeling techniques.
Knowledge of common optical system specifications and optical component specifications.
Exposure to SOC thermal mechanical analysis.
Exposure to optical structural analysis.

Responsibilities

Develop detailed FEA/CFD models of components, packages, optical-electronic modules, and system-level assemblies using appropriate simulation tools such as ANSYS, COMSOL, or equivalent platforms.
Correlate FEA results with experimental measurements, prototype test data, and hardware observations to improve model fidelity and support simulation-driven design decisions.
Perform warpage and deformation analysis for multi‑material assemblies, accounting for mismatch in thermal expansions, nonlinear material behavior, temperature gradients, and boundary conditions.
Develop thermal cycling and mechanical fatigue models to predict long‑term reliability, including creep, stress relaxation, and interface degradation.
Identify mechanical risk drivers and recommend design, material, or process changes to improve robustness, manufacturability, and yield.
Analyze failures related to electro-optical assembly design and providing solutions.
General design activities such as requirements management, materials and component selection, Design Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and tolerance analyses.
Develop end-to-end simulation workflows to automate processes, assess performance across diverse operating scenarios, documentation, and tools to improve efficiency, accuracy, and repeatability.
Document and communicate results through clear technical reports, design reviews, and executive level summaries.