{"id":679246,"url":"https://alion.io/job/mindrobotics-thermal-design-engineer","title":"Thermal Design Engineer","company":{"id":678470,"name":"Mind Robotics","domain":"mindrobotics.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/mindrobotics","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":94,"open_postings":27,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.222,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":53,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Palo Alto, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":118000,"max_usd":222000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":5578},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Physical AI","optional":false},{"name":"SolidWorks","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-05-18T23:39:17Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-05-18","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T06:42:43Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":151,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":151},"description":"About Mind\nMind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.\nAbout the Role\nAs a Thermal Design Engineer at Mind Robotics, you will own the thermal architecture and analysis for our industrial robots, from high-torque actuators and constrained end effectors to dense on-board compute. You will build high-fidelity CFD/FEA models and validate them through hands-on testing, environmental stress, and hardware instrumentation. Working from concept through volume production, you will design scalable cooling solutions like heat sinks, vapor chambers, and TIMs using manufacturing processes like die casting and extrusion. Collaborating closely with electrical, firmware, and controls teams, you will turn complex thermal challenges into high-performance, real-world Physical AI systems.\nResponsibilities\nOwn thermal design and analysis across the robot including arms, end effectors, and on-board compute from concept through volume production.\n\nDevelop thermal architectures for high-torque-density actuators (motors, gearboxes, drives) in joints, where heat dissipation is the limiting factor on continuous performance.\n\nDesign cooling solutions for end effectors within tight volume, mass, and cable-routing constraints.\n\nDevelop thermal management for on-board compute (CPUs, GPUs, custom accelerators, power electronics), including airflow, heat sinks, heat pipes, vapor chambers, TIMs, and active cooling where needed.\n\nBuild thermal models (analytical, CFD, FEA) and validate them with hands-on testing (thermocouple instrumentation, IR imaging, calorimetry, and accelerated stress tests)\n\nSpecify and select thermal components (TIMs, fans, heat pipes, heat sinks, blowers, phase-change materials) and own supplier relationships.\n\nDefine thermal limits, derating curves, and protection logic in collaboration with electrical, firmware, and controls teams.\n\nContribute to DFM/DFA so thermal solutions scale from low-volume prototypes to high-volume production.\n\nDevelop accelerated test plans to validate thermal performance over the product's lifetime, including environmental and duty-cycle stress.\n\nQualifications\n5+ years of experience (or equivalent \"hard tech\" projects) designing and validating thermal solutions for complex electromechanical systems.\n\nStrong fundamentals in conduction, convection, and radiation, plus working knowledge of two-phase cooling and heat-pipe / vapor-chamber design.\n\nHands-on experience with CFD tools (Ansys Icepak, Flotherm, SolidWorks Flow Simulation, or similar) and thermal FEA.\n\nTrack record solving thermal problems in at least one of: high-torque-density motors / actuators, dense power electronics, or compute (CPU / GPU / custom accelerator).\n\nComfortable instrumenting, testing, and debugging thermal performance on real hardware.\n\nExperience designing for volume processes (extrusion, die casting, brazing, stamping) and working with thermal component suppliers and contract manufacturers.\n\nHigh proficiency in SolidWorks, Catia, or similar CAD tools.\n\nHands-on problem-solving approach with the ability to iterate quickly.\n\nYou are comfortable with ambiguity, move fast, and have an \"engineering curiosity\" that drives you to understand how the entire system works, not just your part.\n\nBonus\nExperience in robotics, prosthetics, EV powertrains, drones, or other dense electromechanical systems.\n\nFamiliarity with motor / actuator thermal modeling (winding hot-spot estimation, lumped-parameter networks).\n\nExperience with liquid cooling or hybrid air / liquid systems.\n\nPhD or research experience in thermal 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