Senior Satellite Thermal Engineer – LRU Design - TeraWave

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 Satellite Thermal Engineer to serve as the thermal owner for one or more TeraWave satellite Line Replaceable Units (LRUs). You will hold end-to-end thermal responsibility for your assigned LRU — from requirements definition and design concept through analysis, test, qualification, and production release. This means you are not a support resource to a broader thermal team. You own the thermal performance of your LRU, you define its thermal interfaces with the rest of the vehicle, and you are accountable for its performance in the space environment across the full mission life.

TeraWave's constellation scale means your thermal solutions must be robust, manufacturable, and cost-conscious simultaneously. You will develop and correlate detailed thermal models, drive hardware trades, support thermal vacuum testing, and resolve anomalies — all within a small, accomplished, and fast-moving team. Your models will be correlated to real hardware data, and your designs will ship at production rate.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

- Serve as the thermal Responsible Engineer for one or more TeraWave satellite LRUs — owning thermal performance from requirements through qualification and production release
- Define LRU-level thermal requirements and thermal interface definitions in coordination with systems engineering, mechanical engineering, and the satellite-level thermal team; own and maintain those interfaces throughout the product lifecycle
- Develop detailed thermal models of your assigned LRU using Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, or equivalent tools, covering conduction, radiation, and convection as applicable; maintain model correlation to hardware test data
- Perform transient and steady-state thermal analyses to validate LRU performance under mission profiles, including peak duty cycles, eclipse transitions, and worst-case environmental conditions across the full mission life
- Drive LRU thermal design trades — radiator sizing, heat pipe routing, cold plate integration, thermal interface material selection, heat spreader design — balancing performance, mass, power consumption, manufacturability, and unit cost
- Collaborate with the LRU mechanical, electrical, and packaging engineers to ensure thermal constraints are integrated into the LRU enclosure design, PCB layout, and component placement from the earliest design stages
- Develop thermal loads for your LRU from first principles, literature, and test data; document and maintain analysis inputs, models, and results per Blue Origin standards
- Support LRU hardware development through thermal vacuum testing, model-to-test correlation, and anomaly investigation and resolution
- Assess and validate third-party thermal models for LRU components; develop correlated simplified models for integration into satellite-level analyses
- Develop thermal control procedures for LRU operations across all spacecraft mission phases

Minimum Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related field
- 8 or more years of hands-on experience in spacecraft component or LRU thermal engineering or thermal control systems development
- Proficiency with thermal modeling software — Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, Ansys Icepak, or a directly comparable tool — with demonstrated experience building, running, and correlating models to hardware test data
- Demonstrated experience with spaceborne thermal design, including vacuum environments, radiation heat transfer, and flight hardware qualification
- Hands-on experience with spacecraft thermal testing, including thermal vacuum test setup, execution, data review, and model-to-test correlation
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Preferred Qualifications

- Extensive experience with logic-heavy or highly parameterized Thermal Desktop models for complex satellite LRU geometries
- Experience as the thermal owner for an electronic box, avionics enclosure, or power electronics LRU through qualification and production release
- Experience with high-rate production manufacturing and test environments, including thermal design optimized for producibility and unit cost at constellation scale
- Experience with component-level thermal fatigue analysis for LRU assemblies subject to thermal cycling
- Knowledge of advanced thermal control technologies including variable conductance heat pipes, loop heat pipes, and phase change materials
- Experience with 3D CAD tools (Creo, NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent) for geometry import and thermal model integration
- Familiarity with integrated engineering tools, knowledge capture systems, and rapid development processes
- Strong written and verbal technical communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to author thermal analysis reports, interface control documents, and test plans independently

Base Pay Range for:
CO applicants is $144,179.00 - $201,849.90
WA applicants is $156,802.00 - $219,522.45

Other site ranges may differ

Culture Statement

Don’t meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At Blue Origin, we are dedicated to building an authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every desired qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Export Control Regulations

Applicants for employment at Blue Origin must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e. current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Background Check