Senior Staff Thermal Engineer - Power Electronics

About the role

Shield AI, a defense-tech company developing aircraft and autonomy software, is hiring a Senior Staff Thermal Engineer in Seattle. You will lead the design, analysis and integration of thermal management systems for aircraft avionics, including a high-voltage, high-power system built with custom power electronics and energy storage. The role suits someone who enjoys first-principles problem solving, handles ambiguous challenges and bridges technical disciplines.

Key responsibilities

• Own thermal analysis and design for UAV avionics, including custom power electronics
• Develop and validate analytical, numerical and computational models for heat transfer and fluid flow by hand calculation and CFD tools such as FloEFD
• Lead trade studies, system architecture decisions and risk assessments
• Lead cross-functional teams designing power electronic circuits and environmental enclosures, defining requirements for parts, board layout and materials
• Drive test planning, instrumentation and data analysis to correlate models with experiments
• Mentor junior engineers and guide teams in applying thermal and fluid fundamentals
• Communicate findings in executive briefings, design reviews and written reports
• Identify risks early and influence electrical and PCBA design direction

Required profile

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or a related discipline
• At least 7 years of professional experience in avionics or electronics thermal engineering
• First-principles reasoning applied to complex problems
• Strong written and verbal communication, with a track record of leading technical discussions and presenting to stakeholders
• Ability to learn quickly in a fast-paced startup environment
• S//SAR security clearance desired

Required skills

• Heat transfer and fluid mechanics, active and passive cooling, TIMs, heat sinks, heat pipes, vapor chambers and fans
• Thermal analysis and CFD tools such as ANSYS Icepak, FloEFD and STAR-CCM+
• CAD tools such as NX, SolidWorks or similar