Sr. Thermal Design Engineer, Amazon Leo

Amazon Leo is Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite network. Our mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet connectivity to customers beyond the reach of existing networks. From individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, and government agencies, Amazon Leo will serve people and organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.

We are looking for a highly skilled Senior Thermal Design Engineer who brings a strong blend of technical depth, research capability, and analytical rigor. The ideal candidate has a demonstrated history of delivering high-quality results on time and with efficiency.

Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Key job responsibilities

-Lead thermal design and analysis for consumer electronics products, ensuring high-quality deliverables are completed on time and with efficiency

-Perform Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations to evaluate and optimize thermal performance across product designs

-Develop and refine thermal design processes, methodologies, and best practices to drive continuous improvement

-Design, build, and validate thermal hardware prototypes to support product development milestones

-Deliver rapid thermal design input, trade-off analyses, and actionable recommendations to hardware architects and cross-functional teams

-Produce top-tier thermal analyses and documentation to support design reviews and decision-making

-Apply strong fundamentals in thermal engineering and materials science to solve complex design challenges

-Ramp up on spacecraft thermal design with coaching and mentorship, leveraging core thermal and materials expertise (spacecraft experience is a plus but not required)

-Support thermal design for terrestrial equipment and systems with CFD analysis as appropriate.

-Documenting trades and design evolution, and preparation of materials for design review gates.

A day in the life

We are looking for a Sr. Thermal Design Engineer who combines excellent technical, research and analytical capabilities with a demonstrated ability to get the right work done quickly and effectively. This person must have experience working in spacecraft design, producing high-quality thermal analysis and providing essential thermal related input and recommendations to vehicle architects and subsystem leads.

About the team

Amazon LEO’s Thermal Team is responsible for the thermal design solutions for all components in Kuiper’s satellites and customer terminals. They work together with many engineering disciplines (e.g., mechanical, power, electrical, network) to find the design that maximizes performance while minimizing mass, cost and manufacturing complexity, and enabling all components to operate reliably over the satellite’s target lifetime. The team follows all hardware components from conceptual design, detailed analysis, development testing, through launch and flight.

Basic qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or equivalent

- 5+ years of leading cross-functional teams across engineering, operations, and field execution through launch readiness and go-live phases experience, or experience with simulation and 3D modeling software

- 2+ years experience with Consumer Electronics or similar hardware thermal design, and delivering design solution optimized for mass, cost, reliability, performance, and manufacturability.

- 2+ years experience with test planning, test set-up, results correlation and system verification for production.

- 2+ years experience in development and/or selection of thermal control hardware (e.g., materials and finishes, thermal interface materials, MLI blankets, heat-pipes, radiators, temperature sensors, and heaters).

- Strong CFD experience using software such as ANSYS Fluent, Icepak, FloTHERM, OpenFOAM).

- Capable of running transient and steady-state heat transfer, Multiphase CFD, FEA, and thermos-mechanical analysis. Experience in Thermal desktop and SINDA is a plus.

Preferred qualifications

- Experience with Thermal Desktop (SINDA), Ansys and Python

- Experience with interpreting and correlating data from ground test and on-orbit telemetry

- Experience in design, analysis, manufacturing, testing and integration of heat pipes for ground or space applications.

- Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in mechanical engineering or related field.

- CAD skills (NX or Solidworks)

- Experience developing thermal solutions for high power-flux components

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, WA, Redmond - 159,200.00 - 215,300.00 USD annually