Staff Engineer, Thermal Engineering (Avionics Cooling)

About the role

Shield AI, a defense-tech company developing aircraft and autonomy systems, is hiring a Staff Thermal Engineer in its V-BAT Engineering team. The engineer is the technical authority for aircraft avionics thermal management and electronics cooling, defining thermal architecture, setting analysis and test standards, and carrying solutions from concept through qualification and production. The role suits someone who solves problems from first principles, mentors engineers and raises the thermal capability of the organization.

Key responsibilities

• Serve as technical owner of avionics thermal management across V-BAT, from concept through design, analysis, qualification and production.
• Define thermal architecture, derive thermal requirements and set thermal environments and interface requirements for avionics bays, enclosures and components.
• Develop, review and approve heat transfer and fluid flow models by hand calculation and CFD tools such as FloEFD, and set modeling standards and margin policies.
• Lead trade studies, system architecture decisions and risk assessments, balancing thermal performance against power, weight, volume, cost, maintainability and schedule.
• Define qualification and verification strategy, lead test planning and instrumentation, correlate models with test data, and support environmental qualification to MIL-STD-810 and RTCA DO-160.
• Influence electrical and PCBA design early, including component placement, power dissipation budgets and thermal design rules.
• Write thermal specifications and statements of work, evaluate suppliers and give technical direction on heat sinks, cold plates, heat pipes, vapor chambers and fans.
• Lead thermal content at design reviews, produce traceable technical reports, and mentor engineers and review their analyses and test plans.
• Identify program-level thermal risks early and drive mitigations to closure.

Required profile

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or a related discipline.
• At least 8 years of professional experience in avionics or electronics thermal engineering, including owning thermal solutions through qualification and into production.
• Expert knowledge of heat transfer and fluid mechanics, validated by first-principles calculations.
• Proven experience integrating active and passive cooling at component, subsystem and system level.
• Demonstrated technical leadership: trade studies, design reviews and cross-functional influence.
• Experience mentoring engineers and excellent written and verbal communication.
• Ability to self-direct and deliver in a fast-paced startup environment.

Required skills

• CFD tools such as ANSYS Icepak, FloEFD and STAR-CCM+, including model setup, review and correlation with test data.
• CAD tools such as NX or SolidWorks, and PLM-controlled design release.
• Planning and executing thermal qualification and verification testing, including instrumentation and data acquisition.

Preferred: M.S. degree, high-altitude aircraft cooling experience, aerospace environmental and airworthiness standards (MIL-STD-810, MIL-HDBK-310, RTCA DO-160, MIL-HDBK-516), knowledge of aircraft integration constraints, materials and manufacturing methods, transient thermal analysis, and supplier development.