Staff Thermal Engineer

Employer description

Staff Thermal Engineer 

About Gravitics  

At Gravitics, we're not exploring space—we're building it. We're creating the infrastructure for a thriving space economy, enabling humanity to flourish beyond Earth. Our vision is bold, but we're not just dreamers; we're doers. We design and manufacture large-scale orbital structures that enable commercial operations while meeting the requirements of defense and government missions.  
 
Our systems are built to scale and built to last—bridging commercial innovation with mission-critical performance. If you're ready to lay the foundations for a new era in space, embrace a culture of relentless learning and innovation, and contribute to a future where humanity's reach extends farther, Gravitics is the place for you. Let's build the future together.   

About the Role  

To build our orbital platforms, we need a seasoned thermal engineer who can own thermal design and integration across both in-house and purchased subsystems — and manage thermal interface requirements for internal and external customers. On our hardware-focused team, you’ll take thermal systems from concept to launch: writing architectures, requirements, and development roadmaps; performing component selection and detailed analysis; supervising contract or in-house manufacturing; and supporting test, qualification, and on-orbit operations. 

You’ll also serve as a mentor to junior engineers, imparting sound practices and experience-based lessons while actively seeking better tools and ideas. The ideal candidate presents confidently at engineering design reviews, contributes to proposals and funding opportunities, and brings superb written and verbal communication skills.  

About You 

You’re a successful candidate if you have deep thermal engineering expertise built across the full hardware lifecycle — from napkin sketch to on-orbit performance. You’re as comfortable at a whiteboard as you are in a thermal vacuum chamber. You raise the bar for the engineers around you and don’t wait to be told what needs solving.  

Responsibilities 

• Own thermal design and integration for orbital structures, from concept through on-orbit operations.  

• Write and maintain system architectures, requirements documents, and development roadmaps. 

• Perform component selection and coarse and detailed thermal analysis. 

• Manage thermal interface requirements for internal teams and external customers. 

• Supervise contract or in-house manufacturing of thermal hardware. 

• Design and support test and qualification campaigns including thermal chamber testing. 

• Present work products confidently at engineering design reviews to internal and external stakeholders. 

• Contribute to proposals, funding opportunities, and research initiatives. 

• Mentor junior engineers and actively develop team capabilities. 

 Required Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering from an accredited university. 

• 9+ years of post-baccalaureate thermal design, analysis, test, and troubleshooting experience in industry or university research. 

• Extensive space industry experience designing thermal systems from concept through manufacturing, test, and deployment. 

• System architecture design experience. 

• Expert-level proficiency in industry-standard thermal analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop or Siemens Simcenter. 

• Experience with design in Siemens NX. 

• Experience with thermal chamber testing in both ambient and vacuum environments. 

• Extensive hands-on experience with data acquisition instrumentation. 

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