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Thermal Engineer

Location: Denver, Colorado

Compensation: Competitive base salary + package 

Environment: Smallsat Design and Manufacturing

What if you could take ownership of the thermal performance of a spacecraft from the first design decisions all the way through testing, launch and operations?

EVONA is working with a fast-growing space company that's building its US engineering team in Denver, Colorado, and we're looking for an experienced Spacecraft Thermal Engineer to join them.

You'll be joining a fast-paced, hands-on smallsat engineering and manufacturing environment, developing advanced satellites for commercial, government and scientific missions.

This is an opportunity to get close to the hardware, solve real spacecraft engineering problems and see your work ultimately fly.

The opportunity

As a Spacecraft Thermal Engineer, you'll be responsible for thermal engineering activities across the full spacecraft lifecycle.

From initial spacecraft design and thermal architecture through manufacturing, environmental testing, launch and flight operations, you'll have the opportunity to follow your engineering work from concept to orbit.

You'll work as part of a multidisciplinary Systems Engineering team, collaborating closely with mechanical, electrical, systems and AIT engineers to make sure the spacecraft performs across the environments it will encounter.

You'll work on both satellite platforms and customer-specific spacecraft, meaning the engineering challenges won't always be the same.

This isn't a role where you'll simply run an existing thermal model and produce a report.

You'll help define the thermal architecture.

You'll build and develop the models.

You'll make predictions.

You'll validate them through testing.

And when something doesn't behave as expected, you'll help figure out why.

What you'll be doing

You'll take responsibility for defining spacecraft thermal architectures, including radiators, thermal blankets, heaters and other thermal-control solutions.

You'll build and maintain spacecraft thermal models and use them to predict performance across hot and cold flight cases.

You'll support TVAC campaigns by predicting thermal behaviour, defining test success criteria and calculating thermal power consumption.

Once the hardware goes into testing, you'll correlate your models against real test results and refine them accordingly.

And when thermal issues arise, you'll investigate them, understand the root cause and work with the wider engineering team to drive them through to closure.

Your involvement won't necessarily stop at launch either.

You'll have the opportunity to support spacecraft through flight operations and see how the systems you've designed and analysed perform in the real environment of space.

Who we're looking for

We're looking for someone with a strong technical background in spacecraft thermal engineering who enjoys being close to both the analysis and the hardware.

You'll ideally bring:

  • An MSc in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engineering or a related discipline
  • Strong spacecraft thermal engineering knowledge
  • Experience defining spacecraft thermal architectures
  • Experience developing and working with thermal models
  • Understanding of spacecraft hot-case and cold-case analysis
  • Experience supporting thermal vacuum testing and model correlation
  • A strong understanding of mechanical engineering principles
  • The ability to investigate and solve complex thermal problems
  • Strong communication skills and a collaborative approach to engineering

You'll also be someone who takes ownership and understands that good engineering isn't finished until the solution is delivered and proven.

This role is primarily on-site in Denver, Colorado.

What would really make you stand out?

If you've spent 5+ years working on space programmes, I'd particularly like to hear from you.

Experience with nanosatellites or small satellites would be highly valuable.

Perhaps you've already taken spacecraft through thermal analysis, TVAC qualification and into flight.

Maybe you've worked in an environment where thermal engineers don't operate in isolation, but work directly alongside mechanical, systems, electronics and AIT teams to make rapid engineering decisions.

And if you're comfortable sharing your knowledge and helping develop more junior engineers around you, even better.

Why Apply?

Because you'll have the opportunity to work on real spacecraft and see the impact of your engineering decisions.

You'll be joining a fast-paced and delivery-focused environment where engineers are encouraged to take ownership, solve problems and continuously improve.

There are difficult engineering challenges to solve and plenty of hands-on R&D as the company continues developing its next generation of small satellite technology.

You'll also collaborate with experienced international engineering teams across Europe, with opportunities for occasional international travel.

The package includes:

  • Salary of $120,000–$180,000 per year
  • Health insurance
  • Matching 401(k)
  • Continued technical learning and development
  • International collaboration and occasional travel

Most importantly, this is an opportunity to own your work from analysis to hardware.

If you're a spacecraft thermal engineer who wants to do more than sit behind a model — and you want to see your engineering decisions tested, qualified, launched and ultimately operating in space — we'd love to hear from you.