Thermal Engineer, Satellites (Starlink)

About the Role

As a thermal engineer, you are responsible for the thermal design, test, and validation of Starlink satellite hardware and custom developed chips. You will make engineering decisions to improve the vehicle and increase the performance of the Starlink network.

Key Responsibilities

• Thermal design of satellite components, from initial high-level analysis down to validation of performance with ground tests and orbital data
• Thermal design of semiconductor packages, from high-level concepts to detail thermal simulations and lab testing
• Devise, build, and run tests to validate the performance of the hardware in extreme conditions
• Automate workflow to reduce engineering investment in the design cycle
• Pursue performance/robustness improvements
• Pursue operational simplicity and seek to reduce burden on other groups at SpaceX
• Produce quality documentation of your work to reduce miss-rate and improve efficiency
• Review peer work

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 1+ year industry experience (internships/co-ops can apply)
• Experience with tools for chip thermal design like Flotherm or Icepak
• 1+ years of experience using scientific programming languages (including internships)
• Experience with Thermal Desktop and ANSYS Workbench
• Experience with 3D and reduced order thermal modeling
• Ability to identify sizing cases and quickly evaluate the impact of design decisions
• Working knowledge of scripting languages
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to deliver against an aggressive schedule
• Must be available to work extended hours and weekends as needed for mission critical deadlines

Qualifications

• ITAR Requirements:
• U.S. citizen or national
• U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder)
• Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157
• Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.