Lead Thermal Engineer (Space)

Location: Onsite in Redmond, Washington, United States. Candidates must be U.S. persons eligible under ITAR/EAR export regulations.

Annual salary: $200,000–$250,000 USD.

Company

hirify.global is building a network of space-based data centers using orbital solar power and radiative cooling.

What you will do

• Own the active and passive thermal architecture across spacecraft and payloads.
• Design cold plates, coolant loops, pumps, heat exchangers, thermal interfaces, insulation, heaters, and lightweight deployable radiators.
• Evaluate performance, mass, cost, reliability, manufacturability, schedule, and operational trade-offs.
• Prototype novel thermal concepts, test them on the ground, and validate them in orbit.
• Build and correlate thermal models using test and flight data.
• Lead flight hardware development from concept through manufacturing, integration, qualification, launch, and successive spacecraft improvements.

Requirements

• BS in Mechanical Engineering, a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of hands-on thermal engineering experience across design, analysis, hardware development, and testing.
• Strong command of Thermal Desktop, Ansys, or equivalent thermal analysis tools.
• Experience with active thermal control in space, power, automotive, data center, food/manufacturing, or petroleum environments.
• Ability to manage engineers while remaining deeply hands-on.
• Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or otherwise eligible for authorization under U.S. export regulations.

Nice to have

• Formal leadership of a thermal engineering team.
• Experience with pumped fluid loops, large radiators, industrial heat exchangers, data center cooling, power-plant systems, automotive thermal systems, refrigeration, or petroleum process systems.
• Experience leading development from architecture through qualification and production or flight.

Culture & Benefits

• In-person work within a small engineering team in Redmond.
• Stock options and discretionary bonuses.
• Medical, vision, dental, disability, and life insurance.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Paid parental leave, vacation, holidays, and sick leave.
• Willingness to work extended hours and weekends when required by critical project milestones.