Thermal Test Engineer

Mach Industries•Huntington Beach, CA

14h•$115,000 - $195,000

About The Position

Mach Industries is seeking a Thermal Test Engineer to support the development, qualification, and production of aerospace and defense systems. The role plans, develops, executes, and analyzes thermal and environmental tests on components, subsystems, and integrated systems. The engineer works closely with Mechanical, Thermal, Systems, Electrical, Manufacturing, Quality, and Program teams to help ensure products meet defined thermal performance, reliability, and environmental requirements. The position includes planning and conducting thermal cycling, thermal vacuum, thermal soak, temperature/humidity, high- and low-temperature, and other environmental tests. It also involves operating test equipment, selecting and verifying instrumentation, analyzing test data, troubleshooting anomalies, supporting thermal model correlation and root-cause investigations, and producing detailed test documentation. The engineer contributes to engineering reviews, continuous improvement of test methods and laboratory capabilities, equipment calibration and maintenance, and compliance with applicable aerospace, military, customer, quality, safety, and environmental requirements. The role supports multiple concurrent programs, coordinates with internal teams and external organizations, and may require travel to external test facilities or customer sites. Extended hours and weekends may be required. Applicants must satisfy applicable U.S. export-control requirements; security clearance requirements apply if relevant to the position.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 2 years of experience in thermal testing, environmental testing, test engineering, or a related aerospace or defense engineering discipline.
Hands-on experience developing and executing engineering test procedures.
Experience with thermal chambers and/or thermal vacuum chambers.
Experience with thermal cycling, thermal soak, temperature testing, or other environmental qualification testing.
Experience with instrumentation such as thermocouples, RTDs, pressure transducers, temperature sensors, and data-acquisition systems.
Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, requirements, schematics, and test documentation.
Experience collecting, processing, analyzing, and presenting engineering test data.
Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills.
Experience writing technical documentation, including test procedures and reports.
Strong attention to detail and ability to work effectively in a hands-on test environment.
Ability to collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering and manufacturing teams.
Ability to work safely around high-temperature, low-temperature, vacuum, electrical, and other potentially hazardous test environments.
Must be able to obtain and maintain required security clearance, if applicable to the position.
Must meet applicable U.S. export-control requirements, if applicable.
Available to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
Must meet applicable ITAR eligibility requirements or be eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Thermal Sciences, or a related technical discipline.
At least 5 years of experience in aerospace, defense, space, aviation, or other high-reliability product testing.
Direct experience with thermal vacuum testing and spacecraft or aerospace hardware qualification.
Experience with combined environmental testing, including thermal/vibration, thermal/shock, or thermal/acoustic testing.
Experience with aerospace and military environmental test standards such as MIL-STD-810, RTCA DO-160, NASA/GSFC standards, SMC-S-016, or applicable customer-specific requirements.
Experience with qualification, acceptance, and development testing of flight hardware.
Experience with LabVIEW, NI DAQ/PXI, MATLAB, Python, or similar test and data-analysis tools.
Experience developing automated test and data-acquisition systems.
Experience with thermal analysis and modeling tools such as ANSYS, Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, COMSOL, or equivalent.
Experience correlating thermal test data with analytical or computational thermal models.
Familiarity with spacecraft thermal-control hardware, avionics, electronics, propulsion systems, structures, or other aerospace subsystems.
Experience designing or developing thermal test fixtures and test setups.
Experience with instrumentation calibration, measurement uncertainty, and test-data quality assessment.
Experience performing formal root-cause analysis using methods such as 5-Why, Fishbone/Ishikawa, or 8D.
Experience supporting external test laboratories and customer or government test activities.
Active U.S. Secret, Top Secret, or higher security clearance, where applicable.
Experience working within configuration-controlled engineering and product development environments.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute thermal and environmental test plans for aerospace and defense hardware, from components to system-level assemblies.
Develop test procedures, requirements, instrumentation plans, test configurations, and test-readiness documentation.
Plan and conduct thermal cycling, thermal vacuum, thermal soak, temperature/humidity, high- and low-temperature, and other environmental tests as required.
Support qualification, acceptance, development, and verification testing throughout the product lifecycle.
Configure and operate environmental test chambers, thermal vacuum chambers, thermal cycling equipment, and associated test systems.
Select, install, calibrate, and verify instrumentation, including thermocouples, RTDs, pressure sensors, heat-flux sensors, and data-acquisition instrumentation.
Monitor testing and ensure test conditions remain within approved limits and procedures.
Collect, process, reduce, and analyze thermal test data to assess product performance against requirements.
Identify and troubleshoot test anomalies, instrumentation issues, equipment problems, and hardware performance issues.
Support root-cause investigations of test failures and unexpected results.
Support thermal-model validation and correlation using test data.
Prepare test reports documenting configurations, procedures, results, anomalies, conclusions, and recommendations.
Participate in test readiness, preliminary and design, test result, and failure review boards and other engineering reviews.
Improve thermal test methods, processes, fixtures, instrumentation, and laboratory capabilities.
Develop and maintain test equipment, procedures, work instructions, and standard operating procedures.
Coordinate with internal teams, suppliers, external test facilities, and customers as required.
Ensure testing follows applicable aerospace, military, customer, quality, safety, and environmental requirements.
Support test-equipment calibration, maintenance, troubleshooting, and laboratory safety activities.
Maintain accurate test records, configuration documentation, test logs, and engineering data.
Support multiple concurrent test programs and communicate status, risks, and issues to program stakeholders.
Travel to external test facilities or customer sites as required.