Senior Thermal Engineer – Payload Systems

Job description

Application close date: Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed. At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! Blue Origin is pioneering the future of space-based communications with TeraWave, a revolutionary satellite communications network designed to deliver symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth. This multi-orbit constellation will consist of optically interconnected satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO), providing enterprise-grade connectivity for critical operations worldwide. We are seeking a Senior Thermal Engineer to lead thermal design and analysis for those arrays. Thermal performance is one of the defining engineering challenges of this program. Active phased arrays concentrate a great deal of power into a small area, and on orbit there is no air to move it — every watt leaves by conduction and radiation through hardware you design. Getting that right determines how much capacity the array can deliver and how long it lasts. This is a role where thermal analysis drives the architecture rather than validating it after the fact. You would join early, with real ownership. The thermal discipline is being built out now, requirements and models are still maturing, and the person in this role will shape both the design and the practices the team works to. Expect to work the problem end to end: architecture, modeling, hardware definition, test, and correlation. Two things make this different from most spacecraft thermal work. First, scale: we are building a constellation, not a spacecraft, so mass and performance are weighed against recurring cost and manufacturability at volume, and the sourcing strategy for thermal hardware is part of the engineering job. Second, breadth: you will work across both orbital and terrestrial environments — vacuum and radiation-dominated heat transfer on the satellite, convection, solar loading, and weather exposure on the ground terminal. Few thermal engineers have done both well. We would like you to. Key Responsibilities • Lead thermal architecture for phased array antennas, including active RF front ends, beamforming ICs, and associated power electronics. • Build and maintain detailed thermal models spanning conduction and radiation for space hardware, and convection-driven regimes for ground terminals. • Perform transient and steady-state analysis against realistic mission and utilization profiles, including duty-cycled RF operation, eclipse transitions, attitude variation, and worst-case hot and cold conditions. • Design thermal energy storage and transient heat management solutions for highly variable RF loads. • Define and manage thermal interfaces across the payload, including radiators, heat pipes, thermal interface materials, heat spreaders, cold plates where applicable, and structural conduction paths. • Drive conduction path improvement at the board-to-structure interface in close partnership with mechanical design, including contact area, preload, and mounting strategy. • Select and specify thermal coatings and optical properties, trading performance against recurring cost at production volume. • Design heater architecture, thermal zones, and under-temperature protection strategy, including array warm-up and self-heating states. • Establish thermal requirements, margin policy, and verification plans; own the analysis, test, and inspection basis for each. • Support thermal test campaigns from test article definition through instrumentation, execution, model correlation, and anomaly resolution. • Contribute to make-versus-buy and supply chain strategy for thermal hardware at production volume. • Drive design trades balancing thermal performance, mass, power, producibility, and cost across both space and ground systems. • Collaborate with RF, ASIC, mechanical, structures, GNC, power, and systems engineering to ensure thermal constraints are integrated into array layout, module design, and packaging early. • Mentor engineers and help establish thermal engineering practice, standards, and tooling as the discipline grows. Required Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related field. • 8+ years of experience in thermal engineering for aerospace, RF systems, or high-performance electronics. • Demonstrated experience with spacecraft thermal design, including vacuum environments, radiation heat transfer, and flight hardware qualification. • Strong grounding in the thermal challenges of high-power-density electronics, including dense module integration, junction-level heat extraction, and conduction-limited designs. • Proficiency with thermal modeling tools such as Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, ANSYS Icepak, or equivalent, and comfort building or extending custom models where commercial tools fall short. • Demonstrated transient thermal analysis capability, including duty-cycled loads and thermal fatigue considerations. • Working knowledge of materials, coatings, and thermal interface technologies for space and outdoor terrestrial hardware. • Strong communication skills, with the ability to present and defend technical positions to both engineering and program stakeholders. • Ability to operate with requirements still maturing, and the judgment to make design decisions that survive contact with firmer data. Preferred Qualifications • Master's or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related field. • Phased array thermal design experience, including antenna-in-package integration, beamforming and front-end IC thermal paths, and panel-level array thermal architecture. • Experience with thermal energy