Thermal Analysis Engineer

About the role

We are seeking a talented and enthusiastic Thermal Analysis Engineer to join our team at Barrios, a teammate company supporting NASA's human spaceflight missions. You will play a crucial role in developing, analyzing, and verifying thermal control systems that ensure reliability and safety for both crewed and uncrewed vehicles.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain simplified to high-fidelity thermal models using Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, and related tools.
• Perform steady-state and transient thermal analyses for spacecraft components, subsystems, and integrated vehicle configurations.
• Evaluate thermal performance across mission phases, including ascent, cruise, lunar orbit, surface operations, and off-nominal scenarios.
• Perform thermal sensitivity studies in support of vendor vehicle designs, GFE designs or requirement development.
• Support thermal verification and validation activities, including test planning, thermal vacuum testing, data analysis, and model correlation.
• Collaborate with design teams to optimize PTCS and ATCS architectures.
• Provide guidance on thermal design considerations and ensure compliance with NASA requirements and best practices.
• Participate in design reviews, technical interchange meetings, and anomaly investigations.
• Review NASA and vendor thermal designs for technical accuracy and requirement compliance.
• Document analysis results, prepare technical reports, and present findings to internal stakeholders and NASA customers.
• Support integration with systems engineering, mission operations, and hardware development teams throughout the engineering lifecycle.

Qualifications

• This position has been posted at multiple levels. Typically requires a bachelor's degree in Engineering and a minimum of 2-5 years of experience in the field or in a related area.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering from an accredited institution.
• Experience with thermal analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop, COMSOL, ANSYS Fluent, or similar industry-standard software.
• Strong understanding of heat transfer principles and spacecraft thermal environments.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to coordinate across multiple technical disciplines.
• Ability to assess and validate thermal designs for technical accuracy and compliance with requirements.

Preferences

• Typically 5-10 years of relevant engineering experience.
• BS degree in engineering and at least five years of direct engineering experience.
• Familiarity with NASA JSC organizations, processes, and procedures.
• Experience with PTCS or ATCS hardware design, analysis, testing, certification, or operations.
• Proficiency with Thermal Desktop is strongly preferred.
• Proven experience performing thermal analysis and design for aerospace systems.
• Familiarity with the Engineering Life Cycle and requirements verification processes.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate support from a wide range of technical disciplines.
• Demonstrate strong leadership by fostering collaboration, driving clear technical direction, and contributing to a culture of accountability and high-quality engineering.