Thermal Engineer
LB165
Posted: 22/09/2026
- $200,000 - $250,000
- Santa Clara County, CA
- Permanent
Thermal Engineer – Liquid Cooling
Santa Clara, California, United States (On-site)
On-site | Santa Clara, CA
200-250k base + equity.
I’m working with a well-funded technology company developing high-performance hardware for advanced data-center applications.
They are looking for an experienced Thermal Engineer to lead the design, modeling and validation of cooling systems for high-power electronic equipment.
This is an equipment-level thermal-engineering position rather than a facilities or HVAC role. You’ll own thermal solutions from early analysis and simulation through physical testing and system integration.
You’ll work on:
- Designing heat sinks, cold plates and liquid-cooling loops
- Developing advanced air-, liquid- and two-phase-cooling solutions
- Running thermal modeling and simulation
- Conducting physical testing, validation and model correlation
- Integrating cooling systems into broader hardware architectures
- Troubleshooting thermal-performance and system-reliability issues
- Working across mechanical, electrical and system-engineering teams
- Building technical relationships with cooling-component suppliers
- Evaluating new thermal technologies and industry developments.
Looking for engineers who have:
- A bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline, with a master’s preferred
- 10+ years of thermal-design experience
- At least two years of hands-on liquid- or two-phase-cooling design experience
- Strong knowledge of heat-transfer fundamentals
- Proficiency with Flotherm, Flotherm XT, FloEFD, Icepak or equivalent tools
- Experience taking thermal designs from modeling through physical validation
- Designed cooling solutions for high-power commercial electronic systems
- Worked closely with technical suppliers and cross-functional engineering teams.
You should also understand data-center liquid-cooling systems, including:
- In-chassis cooling loops
- Rack interfaces and associated hardware
- In-rack or in-row coolant distribution units
- Connections between equipment cooling and facility-side infrastructure.
Experience with networking, server, telecom or comparable high-power rack-mounted equipment is particularly relevant.
This is an opportunity to take ownership of technically challenging thermal systems within an experienced team developing next-generation data-center hardware.
Worth a confidential chat?
Anna Button
Researcher