Senior Principal Thermal Engineer (AI/Data Center)

Location: Onsite in Sunnyvale, California, United States; primarily working from an HPE office.

Salary: USD 181,000–367,000 annual base salary in California; variable incentives may also be offered.

Company

hirify.global is an edge-to-cloud technology company developing solutions that connect, protect, analyze, and manage data and applications.

What you will do

• Define the long-term thermal technology vision, strategy, architectures, methodologies, standards, and roadmap for HPE Networking products.
• Identify, evaluate, mature, and recommend advanced air, liquid, hybrid, immersion, two-phase, and other cooling technologies for AI, networking, high-performance computing, and data-center platforms.
• Lead technology investigations, proof-of-concept development, feasibility studies, competitive benchmarking, readiness assessments, and thermal validation.
• Assess the thermal implications of future silicon, optics, packaging, power delivery, rack-scale architectures, and AI infrastructure trends.
• Guide architecture tradeoffs and technology selections while balancing performance, reliability, energy efficiency, sustainability, serviceability, manufacturability, acoustics, and total cost of ownership.
• Evaluate suppliers, universities, startups, and technology partners; influence executives and cross-functional stakeholders, contribute to standards, and mentor thermal engineers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Sciences, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related engineering discipline; an advanced degree is preferred.
• Typically 15+ years of experience in thermal engineering, electronics cooling, or related disciplines, including recognized expertise in advanced air-cooling and/or liquid-cooling technologies.
• Demonstrated technical leadership and industry impact through innovative thermal solutions, advanced technology programs, major architecture contributions, or pioneering cooling technologies.
• Ability to influence technology direction across organizations, business units, suppliers, customers, and industry groups.
• Deep expertise in electronics thermal management, including air cooling, liquid cooling, hybrid architectures, and emerging cooling technologies.
• Expert knowledge of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, airflow optimization, heat sinks, vapor chambers, heat pipes, cold plates, heat exchangers, flow distribution, pressure drop, and thermal system optimization.
• Advanced knowledge of system airflow management, fan technologies, acoustic optimization, thermal control strategies, and high-density electronics cooling.
• Extensive experience with thermal and CFD simulation tools such as FloTHERM, FloEFD, Icepak, Star-CCM+, Macroflow, or equivalent platforms.
• Knowledge of technology readiness assessment, feasibility studies, experimental design, thermal characterization, and performance validation techniques.
• Knowledge of AI infrastructure, high-density networking, advanced semiconductor packaging, co-packaged optics, photonics, rack-scale architectures, and sustainable data-center technologies.
• Outstanding analytical and creative problem-solving skills, strong business acumen, and executive-level communication skills.
• Demonstrated innovation through patents, publications, conference presentations, standards participation, or successful deployment of differentiated cooling technologies.

Culture & Benefits

• Health, financial, and emotional wellbeing benefits for employees and their loved ones.
• Professional development programs supporting technical expertise and career growth across divisions.
• Inclusive workplace that values varied backgrounds and individual uniqueness.
• Accessibility accommodations are available during the application and interview process for qualified applicants with disabilities.