Principal Thermal and Thermo-Mechanical Simulation Engineer (AI)

Location: Onsite at IMEC in Leuven, Belgium several days per week; remote collaboration with teams in Palo Alto, California. Moderate travel within continental Europe and occasional intercontinental travel are required.

Compensation: €20–€45, L4–L7+, based on experience.

Company

hirify.global develops physics AI software that helps hardware designers and physics simulation engineers explore, analyze, and optimize hardware systems.

What you will do

• Act as the senior technical authority for thermal and thermo-mechanical simulation at imec, defining methodologies, best practices, and mentoring engineers.
• Set up simulations, run test cases, and interpret results for advanced semiconductor devices, electronics packages, and wafer-scale systems.
• Evaluate steady-state and transient thermal behavior, nonlinear mechanics, contact interactions, warpage, stress evolution, and reliability.
• Partner with sales on product demonstrations, proof-of-concept evaluations, technical discussions, training sessions, and workshops across Europe.
• Identify workflow gaps and translate customer feedback into actionable product and engineering improvements.
• Represent hirify.global at semiconductor conferences and maintain awareness of competing simulation technologies and industry trends.

Requirements

• Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, or a related engineering field.
• 15+ years of hands-on experience in thermal management, mechanical warpage, stress, and reliability analysis.
• Experience with semiconductor electronics packaging, advanced packaging, or foundry technologies, including chip and wafer warpage and 2.5D/3D ICs.
• Experience with commercial simulation software such as Flowtherm, Cadence, Ansys, Abaqus, or LS-DYNA.
• Scripting experience with Python or C++ and strong problem-solving, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Prior leadership or managerial experience and experience in customer-facing engineering or pre-sales roles.

Nice to have

• Experience commercializing technical software, particularly EDA or simulation tools, for semiconductor and electronics companies.
• Ability to rapidly learn physics-based workflows and AI-assisted design tools.

Culture & Benefits

• Work at the intersection of AI, advanced engineering, and customer success.
• Help define the future of AI for hardware design.
• Collaborate with engineers and researchers in a fast-moving startup environment.
• Work remotely with sales, product, and engineering teams while maintaining an onsite presence at IMEC.