Staff Engineer, Aircraft Thermal Systems - Ranger (R6351)

Location: Seattle, Washington; on-site. US citizenship and an active Secret or higher security clearance are required.

Salary: $170,000–$260,000 per year, plus bonus, benefits, and equity for regular full-time employees.

Company

hirify.global develops intelligent defense systems, including Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and simulation and synthetic reality technologies.

What you will do

• Own aircraft-level thermal environments and thermal management solutions for vehicle bays, hot surfaces, and other thermal-critical installations on a Group 5 UAV fighter.
• Perform first-principles heat-transfer and fluid-mechanics calculations and develop analytical, finite-difference, CFD, and thermal-analysis models covering conduction, convection, radiation, and coupled thermal-fluid behavior.
• Design active and passive cooling solutions, including heat-rejection paths, airflow, ducting, thermal interfaces, and thermal hardware.
• Generate thermal requirements, assess technical risks, and balance thermal performance against vehicle power, mass, volume, maintainability, and integration constraints.
• Develop thermal hardware layouts and CAD models, resolve interfaces with structures, avionics, fluid systems, EWIS, and adjacent mechanical systems, and support vehicle integration.
• Define and execute qualification and verification tests, design test rigs, support instrumentation and data acquisition, correlate models with test data, manage suppliers, and mature hardware toward production and airworthiness certification.

Requirements

• US citizenship and an active Secret or higher security clearance.
• 7–12 years of direct experience in aerospace thermal engineering, environmental control systems, or vehicle thermal and fluid system development.
• B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Deep mastery of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics applied to aircraft or defense systems.
• Experience with first-principles hand calculations, finite-difference methods, and CFD or thermal-analysis tools such as FloEFD, STAR-CCM+, Thermal Desktop, or equivalent.
• Experience designing active and passive cooling solutions and managing thermal environments for aircraft bays, engine bays, hot surfaces, or comparable aerospace installations.
• Experience with 3D CAD modeling, thermal hardware layout, routing, and drawing release using Siemens NX, CATIA, Creo, SolidWorks, or equivalent PLM workflows.
• Experience sourcing commercial or custom aerospace components, driving suppliers to schedule, and assembling benchtop or vehicle-level test setups.
• Ability to self-direct, prioritize technical tasks without oversight, and deliver functional hardware under tight timelines.

Nice to have

• Experience with high-altitude aircraft thermal management, analysis, and design.
• Hands-on experience with thermal and fluid system testing, instrumentation, data acquisition, and validation.
• Knowledge of materials and manufacturing methods relevant to aerospace thermal management.
• Background in multidisciplinary systems integration spanning avionics, fluid systems, and systems engineering.
• Familiarity with aerospace environmental and airworthiness requirements and standards, including MIL-STD-810, MIL-HDBK-310, RTCA DO-160, and SAE AIR or ARP standards.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time regular employment with pay within the listed range, bonus, benefits, and equity.
• Work is performed on-site in Seattle.
• Work takes place in a rapid-iteration aircraft development environment focused on transitioning concepts into operational capability.
• Offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.