Senior Thermal Engineer Verified today

About Vast

Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure using an incremental, hardware-rich, and low-cost approach. Haven Demo's 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Haven-1 is expected to become the world's first commercial space station when it launches in 2027. The company recently announced Vast Satellite, a high-power satellite product line leveraging space station components and Haven Demo heritage.

About This Role

You will define the thermal control architecture and own thermal analysis for a constellation-ready 15kW spacecraft bus designed to scale to hundreds of spacecraft per year. This is a full-time position based in Long Beach, California.

You are designing a high-power satellite bus that accommodates multiple payload types, including a compute-intensive Nvidia payload with significant thermal dissipation. Thermal architecture is a first-order design decision, not an afterthought. You will own thermal analysis and design from system architecture through flight delivery, starting during architecture trade studies.

The thermal challenges span the full range: multiple payload configurations with different thermal profiles, high-power-density electronics with demanding heat rejection requirements, and a production-rate design that must be repeatable across hundreds of spacecraft. You will start as the sole thermal engineer and build a team as the program scales.

Responsibilities

• Define the thermal control architecture by trading passive, heat pipe, and pumped fluid loop approaches, radiator sizing and placement
• Perform system-level and component-level thermal analysis for the satellite bus across all payload configurations
• Address the high-power thermal challenge driven by Nvidia compute module heat rejection requirements that may force the architecture
• Contribute first-order thermal models to the spacecraft design, simulation, and digital twin tool for fast design iteration, then validate using traditional analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop
• Develop and maintain the detailed system thermal model
• Own the thermal budget by tracking min/max temperatures per component versus qualification limits across all orbital conditions
• Select thermal coatings and materials including AZ-93, S13G, Kapton, and Aeroglaze
• Specify and procure emissivity control materials and RTDs (temperature sensors)
• Plan TVAC test campaigns by defining chamber requirements, test profiles, and success criteria to feed facility planning
• Correlate thermal models to test data after environmental testing
• Support solar array thermal analysis by coordinating with the solar array team lead
• Support box-level thermal design for new clean-sheet avionics designs including power dissipation, interface temperatures, and mounting thermal resistance

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline
• 6 or more years of spacecraft or aerospace thermal engineering experience
• Spacecraft thermal control design and analysis experience for passive and active systems
• Built and correlated thermal models for flight hardware
• Experience with high-power and high-dissipation thermal challenges
• Familiarity with thermal coatings, MLI, radiators, heat pipes, and thermal straps
• TVAC test planning and execution experience
• Comfortable working during early architecture phases and making thermal architecture recommendations with incomplete data
• Experience across multiple thermal analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop, SINDA, ESATAN, or equivalent

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Able to obtain a security clearance
• Experience with multi-satellite builds where thermal design must be consistent across units
• High-power-density thermal design experience
• Thermal design for payloads with variable duty cycles
• Cryogenic or specialized thermal control experience

Compensation

Base salary: $147,600 to $209,520 USD. Compensation varies based on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand.

Full-time employees receive company equity and comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents; generous paid time off with 20+ days vacation for exempt staff; paid parental leave; short and long-term disability insurance; life insurance; 401(k) retirement plan; ClassPass credits; personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health; free snacks, drip coffee, onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals; and subsidized lunch.

Employment Requirements

This is a full-time exempt position. You must either be a U.S. person as defined by 22 C.F.R. Section 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing to access information and items subject to U.S. export controls. Eligible status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.