Senior Thermal Engineer - Defense Hardware

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Thermal Engineering team enables Anduril’s rapid hardware development cycle by ensuring advanced defense systems perform reliably in demanding real-world environments. The team works across high-power, tightly integrated products where thermal architecture, analysis, testing, and cross-functional design decisions directly affect product performance, reliability, and mission success.

ABOUT THE JOB

We are looking for a Thermal Engineer to join our team in Costa Mesa, CA . In this role, you will own thermal design and analysis for advanced defense hardware across drones,aircraft, missiles, and related flight systems.

This role is ideal for someone with deep heat transfer and fluid dynamics fundamentals, strong thermal analysis capability, and the practical judgment to choose the right level of analysis, from first-order hand calculations through detailed FEA / CFD, to guide fast design decisions.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own thermal design and analysis for integrated hardware products, including drones,aircraft, missiles, or related defense systems.
• Use first-principles engineering judgment todeterminethe right level of analysis for each design decision, including hand calculations, spreadsheets, MATLAB / Python models, FEA, and CFD.
• Define thermal architectures that can withstand rugged environments, demanding flight envelopes, and operational edge cases, including hot, cold, transient, and mission-specific thermal conditions.
• Partner with electrical, mechanical, aerospace, software, and systems engineers to document power dissipation, operating modes, thermal constraints, and design tradeoffs.
• Build andmaintainthermal FEA / CFD models to predict system performance,establishdesign limits, and define red / yellow operating thresholds for test and field use.
• Define and execute prototype builds and thermal tests, including CAD support, sensorselection, DAQ setup, data post-processing, and results documentation.
• Present thermal status, risks, tradeoffs, timelines, and recommendations in internal design reviews and customer-facing technical reviews.
• Develop internal tools, workflows, or analysis methods that improve speed, consistency, and quality of thermal decision-making.
• Support failure reviews and root-cause investigations using test data, thermal analysis, and first-principles reasoning.

ImpactYou’llHave

• Drive thermal architecture decisions that directly influence the performance, reliability, anddeployabilityof advanced defense products.
• Help engineering teams move faster by turning thermal analysis and test data into clear design recommendations.
• Reduce technical risk across high-power, highly integrated systemsoperatingin extreme environments.
• Build scalable analysis tools and methods that improve how Anduril evaluates thermal performance across multiple product lines.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• MS or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field with a focus on heat transfer, fluid dynamics, thermal sciences, or thermal systems.
• 2+ years of experience designing, analyzing, or validating thermal systems for integrated hardware products.
• Strong first-principles understanding of heat transfer and fluid dynamics, including conduction, convection, radiation, fluid flow, and transient thermal behavior.
• Experience supporting thermal design for aerospace,aircraft, rocket, missile, UAV, defense, or other high-performance hardware systems.
• Experience using thermal analysis, modeling, simulation, and/or physical test data to drive design decisions for passive or active thermal management systems.
• Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs clearly across engineering, program, and customer stakeholders, and ability to obtain andmaintaina U.S. Top Secret security clearance.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with thermal analysis tools such as STAR-CCM+, ANSYS,Icepak,Flotherm, or comparable FEA / CFD platforms.
• Experience using MATLAB, Python, spreadsheets, or similar tools for first-order thermal modeling, transient analysis, or engineering trade studies.
• Experience designing thermal hardware such as heat sinks, cold plates, fans, pumps, heat exchangers, thermal interface materials, liquid cooling systems, orair-coolingsystems.
• Experience planning or executing thermal tests, including sensor selection, data acquisition, data post-processing, and correlation of test results to analysis.
• Experience with SolidWorks, Siemens NX, or comparable CAD tools.
• Experience supporting formal design reviews, customer reviews, flight test, qualification testing, or fielded hardware.
• Experience developing reusable analysis tools, automation workflows, reduced-order models, or other methods that improve analysis speed and consistency.
• Strong motivation to support Anduril’s mission of defending the United States and allied partners.

US Salary Range

$132,000 - $175,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:

At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next. For more information, Explore Our Benefits .

Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams

Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've observed a rise in sophisticated phishing and fraudulent schemes where individuals impersonate Anduril representatives, luring job seekers with false interviews or job offers. These scammers often attempt to extract payment or sensitive personal information.

To ensure your safety and help you navigate your job search with confidence, please keep the following critical points in mind:

No Financial Requests: Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details (such as banking information, credit card numbers, or social security numbers) at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates.

• Please always verify communications:
  • Direct from Anduril: If you receive an email from one of our recruiters, it will only come from an @anduril.com address.
  • Via Agency Partner: If contacted by a recruiting agency for an Anduril role, their email will clearly identify their agency. If you suspect any suspicious activity, please verify the agency's authenticity by reaching out to View email address on click.appcast.io .

Exercise Caution with Unsolicited Outreach: If you receive any communication that appears suspicious, contains grammatical errors, or makes unusual requests, do not engage. Always confirm the sender's email domain is @anduril.com before providing any personal information or clicking on links.

What to Do If You Suspect Fraud: Should you encounter any questionable or fraudulent outreach claiming to be from Anduril, please report it immediately to View email address on click.appcast.io . Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.

By submitting your application, you consent to Anduril Industries using a third-party service provider to conduct pre-employment risk, integrity, and due diligence screening and assessing potential risks as part of your application process. This third-party service provider provides risk-intelligence services that may include analysis of sanctions and watchlists, adverse media, public-record information, and other lawful open-source or commercial data sources. This third-party service provider does not act as a consumer reporting agency. Use of this provider helps to ensure compliance with applicable laws and protect technology, intellectual property, and organizational security.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Anduril Industries? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Enter manually

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

LinkedIn Profile

Website

CLEARANCE ELIGIBILITY - This position requires eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. * Select...

Do you presently hold an active U.S. security clearance, or are you eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance?

For more information about U.S. Security Clearances: click here .

EXPORT CONTROLS - This position requires access to information and technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Your responses to the questions below will be used solely to determine your eligibility under U.S. law to receive information and materials subject to U.S. export controls. * Select...

Are you any of the following “protected individual(s)” as defined in the Immigration and Naturalization Act, 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)?:

What is the country of your birth? *

If you are a United States citizen or national, please answer with "N/A". It is the policy of Anduril to ask this question of all persons completing this form.

Please list all countries of which you are a citizen, and, if applicable, the date you obtained citizenship. *

If you are a United States citizen or national, please answer with "N/A". It is the policy of Anduril to ask this question of all persons completing this form.

Please list any additional countries of which you are a lawful permanent resident and, if applicable, the date you obtained permanent residency. *

If you are a United States citizen or national, please answer with "N/A". It is the policy of Anduril to ask this question of all persons completing this form.

U.S. WORK AUTHORIZATION * Select...

Are you authorized to work in the United States?

Will you require sponsorship from Anduril for employment now or in the future (e.g, H1B visa)? * Select...

HISTORY WITH ANDURIL * Select...

Have you previously applied to a position at Anduril?

Have you ever been employed by Anduril or any company that Anduril has acquired? * Select...

CONFLICT OF INTEREST * Select...

Do you currently, or have you in the last 5 years, worked for the US government (e.g., Congressional staffer, member of the military, state, or federal agencies) and had oversight or similar responsibility over Anduril’s business or other interests?

How did you hear about Anduril? * Select...

If other, please specify

Legal First Name *

As shown on your government-issued ID (e.g. passport or driver's license).

Legal Last Name *

As shown on your government-issued ID (e.g. passport or driver's license).

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Anduril Industries’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.