Staff Thermal Systems Integration Engineer

About the role

We're looking for a Staff Thermal Systems Integration Engineer to own thermal management across our entire robot platform. This role spans system-level thermal architecture, detailed thermal modeling and simulation, integration with mechanical design, coordination with controls on thermal management strategies, and validation across diverse operating environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop system-level thermal requirements and decompose to subsystems and components; own thermal management of the entire robot platform including all cooling devices, thermal paths, and heat dissipation strategies.
• Partner with Hardware sub-teams (structures, actuators, electrical) from design review and release, ensuring thermal requirements are met in implementation and cooling device placement and sizing are optimized.
• Create detailed thermal simulations (including computational fluid dynamics where appropriate) to validate designs; lead thermal verification across diverse operating environments and use cases against reliability and uptime targets.
• Collaborate with Control Engineers to develop thermal management algorithms, derating, and shutdown strategies; work with Safety Engineers to integrate thermal constraints into system safety analyses and ensure correct behavior implementation.
• Validate subsystem and robot-level thermal performance, documenting thermal specifications, analyses, simulation results, and verification test plans for regulatory and design review traceability.
• Provide technical guidance on thermal design principles, best practices, and lessons learned to support the organization in thermally sound decision-making.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of related experience of thermal systems analysis, including heat transfer principles, thermal modeling, and cooling device design and selection.
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, or closely related engineering discipline.
• Hands-on experience with thermal simulation tools for simulating heat loading and validating the impact of cooling devices and thermal management strategies.
• Strong systems-thinking: ability to reason across mechanical, electrical, and control layers to identify thermal constraints and optimize integrated thermal solutions.
• Experience decomposing system-level thermal requirements into component and subsystem specifications.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with Hardware, Controls, Safety, and Product teams to drive alignment on thermal architecture and constraints.
• Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis instincts for thermal issues—you follow the evidence and push until you understand the real problem.
• Excellent communication skills; comfortable engaging Hardware, Controls, Safety, Systems Integration, and Product stakeholders as peers and translating between disciplines.

Qualifications

• Nice to have: Experience with mainstream CFD tools (ANSYS Fluent, COMSOL, OpenFOAM, or similar) and advanced thermal simulation techniques.
• Proficiency in MATLAB / Simulink for thermal modeling, control algorithm development, or co-simulation environments.
• Experience with Python for thermal data analysis, automation, or custom tooling.
• Exposure to functional safety standards (ISO 26262, IEC 61508) and regulated product development.
• Experience with requirements management and traceability tooling (Flow, DOORS, Jama, Polarion, or similar).
• Background in robotics, embedded systems, or high-performance hardware platforms.
• Prior experience supporting products in the field and turning field-observed thermal issues into durable engineering improvements.

Benefits

At Rhoda AI, we offer competitive compensation packages, comprehensive benefits, and a dynamic work environment that fosters innovation and growth.

Pay

Competitive salary commensurate with experience.

Schedule

Full-time position.