Astranis builds advanced satellites for high orbits, expanding humanity’s reach into the solar system. Today, Astranis satellites provide dedicated, secure networks to highly-sophisticated customers across the globe— large enterprises, sovereign governments, and the US military. With five satellites on orbit and many more set to launch soon, the company is servicing a backlog of more than $1 billion of commercial contracts.

Astranis is the preferred satellite communications partner for buyers with stringent requirements for uptime, data security, network visibility, and customization. Astranis has raised over $750 million from some of the world’s best investors, from Andreessen Horowitz to Blackrock and Fidelity, and employs a team of 450 engineers and entrepreneurs. Astranis designs, builds, and operates its satellites out of its 153,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Northern California, USA.

Senior Thermal Engineer

As an Astranis Senior Thermal Analyst, you will serve as the technical authority on thermal modeling and simulation. While you will work closely with Astranis space hardware, your primary responsibility is the virtual validation of the vehicle thermal system. You will drive the analysis strategy for everything from high-power electronics to full spacecraft architectures, ensuring that our predictions match reality. 

The ideal candidate has a detailed understanding of the principals of FEA as well as the specifics about Thermal Desktop and/or Ansys Mechanical / Icepak. You have a deep expertise in solver settings, to determine appropriate mesh sizing, time-stepping, and convergence criteria to optimize run-time without sacrificing accuracy.

Role

• Create thermal models of varying complexity and fidelity in Thermal Desktop and/or ANSYS Mechanical
• Perform high-fidelity thermal analysis on critical hardware including propulsion systems, RF payloads, batteries, and PCBs
• Refine and enforce analysis best practices among the thermal team, owning the framework for model reviews, file management and analysis quality
• Make strategic decisions on analysis fidelity (simplified to detailed) based on project needs
• Collaborate with mechanical designers to identify feasible thermal architectures during conceptual and preliminary design phases, using analysis to drive decision-making
• Correlate thermal models to ground thermal vacuum test data as well as on-orbit thermal data from our operating fleet of spacecraft
• Mentor and support junior engineers, hold training sessions and support the improvement of team analysis practices
• Assist in recruiting, interviewing, and hiring additional teammates to our rapidly-growing team

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science degree in engineering or physics
• 6+ years of experience in a thermal/mechanical role
• Expert-level proficiency in Thermal Desktop and/or ANSYS Mechanical or Icepak; comfortable debugging complex models and customizing solver inputs
• Experience performing model correlation for complex system level thermal models
• A deep, fundamental understanding of heat transfer (radiation, conduction, and convection) and thermodynamics
• Proficiency with mechanical CAD
• Ability to distill complex analysis data into clear recommendations for the design team
• Don't meet them all? Not a problem. Please apply even if you do not meet all these criteria

Bonus

• Experience using Python, MATLAB, or Fortran to automate analysis generation, post-processing, or link thermal models with other physics solvers
• Specific experience with PCB-level thermal analysis (trace mapping, component-level modeling)
• Experience analysing for the space environment
• Experience physically setting up and running Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) tests