Description
Thermal Engineer (Senior Level or Higher)
Department: Vehicle Engineering
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Hawthorne, CA, Hawthorne, California
Venturi Astrolab, Inc. (Astrolab) is pioneering new ways to explore and operate on distant planetary bodies. We are singularly focused on designing, building, and operating a fleet of multi-purpose commercial planetary rovers to extend and enhance humanity’s presence in the solar system. We are seeking motivated, creative, and exceptional people to join our world-class team.
We are looking for an experienced contributor to take on a leadership role within the Thermal Engineering team, responsible for all aspects of the design, analysis and test of Lunar systems. We move fast, we have hardware going to the Moon this year, and we need an individual motivated to help accelerate this exciting endeavor. You will work collaboratively across engineering disciplines to optimize thermal management solutions, ensuring the longevity and functionality of our rovers during extended missions in harsh conditions.
What you'll do:
- Work autonomously and with minimal oversight to develop thermal control strategies, systems, and architectures for planetary rovers (and other surface assets), including thermal analysis, design, and testing for operation in extreme environments (lunar dust, permanently shadowed regions, equatorial and polar operation, lunar night hibernation, etc.)
- Conduct thermal modeling and simulation using Thermal Desktop (as well as Thermal FEA software as needed), including transient and steady-state thermal analysis for vehicle systems exposed to vacuum, radiation, and temperature extremes to cover entire mission durations
- Perform thermal control system (TCS) trade studies (ranging from first order hand calculations to detailed parameter sweep modeling) to inform early design choices and optimize high maturity designs
- Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to develop inputs to thermal models and to integrate thermal solutions into overall rover design
- Develop test plans for thermal qualification testing ranging from unit- to vehicle-level assemblies
- Automate workflows via programming (e.g. MATLAB/Python) to streamline thermal analysis processes and reduce engineering cycles
- Document designs, analysis results, and validation outcomes to support team understanding and future reference
- Drive performance and cost-efficiency improvements in thermal system and hardware design
- Review and provide feedback on the thermal designs and analyses of peers
- Mentor junior engineers on best practices, how to work efficiently, and how to prioritize tasking
What you'll bring:
- Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field
- 6+ years of experience with thermal analysis / design of in-space systems, including at the vehicle level
- Experience over the full spacecraft life cycle, including design, test, and operation
- Demonstrated ability to reason from first principles and employ reduced-order thermal modeling techniques
- Experience writing thermal qualification test plans, seeing hardware through thermal testing, and conducting model correlation
- Experience with Thermal Desktop modeling software
- Experience with programming for process automation
- Capability to quickly/efficiently distill complex information down to the most salient points
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with space-grade thermal components and/or extra-terrestrial rover systems
- Working knowledge of high-performance heat transfer systems (heat pipes, thermal switches, heaters, RTDs, etc.) and in-space thermal protection (MLI, MMOD, etc.)
- Experience working with vendors for initial phases of thermal hardware procurement
- Experience writing thermal qualification test plans
- Experience with thermal FEA (ANSYS, Simcenter, etc.)
- Familiarity with MATLAB/Python specifically
- Familiarity with SMC-S-016 and other industry-standard design/test guideline documents
- Experience working in the human-rated spaceflight domain
- Ability and willingness to coach and mentor other team members
Benefits and Perks
- Join a team of best-in-class engineers building the foundation of planetary surface exploration
- Equity ownership in the company
- Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health support
- 401(k) plan with company match
- Flexible PTO and parental leave
- Home office set up reimbursement
- Fully flexible and remote friendly work environment
- Weekly lunch stipend, plus complimentary snacks and beverages on-site
- Once a month social hour on-site with food and drinks
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