The Role and Your Impact:We need a Senior Mechanical Engineer with deep thermal expertise to own the thermal architecture of Archimedes, with direct focus on the turret and gimbal that carry the laser source. High-power directed energy systems live or die on thermal management. You'll design, simulate, and prove out the cooling solutions that keep our laser performing at multi-kilowatt power over sustained operation, inside a moving turret, in real-world environments.
This is a thermal lead role. You set the thermal design philosophy. You build the simulation framework. You implement cooling loops, heat exchangers, and conduction paths that survive a outdoor environment, not just a lab. You partner directly with the laser, optics, electrical, and controls teams to manage thermal budget across the integrated system.
What You'll Own:- Thermal architecture of Archimedes end to end, with primary focus on the turret and gimbal subsystems that house the laser source.
- Cooling loop design and implementation including pumps, heat exchangers, cold plates, working fluid selection, and routing through rotating and translating joints.
- Thermal simulation in ANSYS, COMSOL, or equivalent. CFD where it accelerates the design decision, not where it justifies one.
- Thermal modeling across the optical chain, motor drives, power electronics, and ambient environment.
- Heat sink design, thermal interface material selection, and conduction path optimization for high-power-density components.
- Test fixture development and execution for thermal qualification including operational thermal cycling, soak testing, and steady-state characterization.
- Partnership with the optics team on thermal lensing, beam quality degradation, and stable beam path under thermal load.
- Materials selection for thermal performance across metals, ceramics, and composites
What We're Looking For:- 5 to 10+ years in mechanical engineering with primary focus on thermal design and implementation
- Practical implementation experience. You've spec'd pumps, sized heat exchangers, selected working fluids, and built systems that hit thermal targets on hardware
- Direct hands-on experience implementing cooling solutions for high-power systems.
- Strong simulation background in ANSYS Thermal, COMSOL, or equivalent. CFD experience is required for this role, not optional
- Deep understanding of conduction, convection, radiation, two-phase cooling, and where each applies
- Hands-on test and validation experience including thermal cycling, IR imaging, thermocouple instrumentation, and steady-state characterization
- Expert in CAD (SolidWorks, Creo, or similar)
Nice to Haves:- Familiarity with turret, gimbal, or rotating-joint hardware is a strong plus. The thermal problem on Archimedes lives inside a moving structure with rotating joints carrying coolant and electrical lines. You don't need to have designed gimbals before, but you need to be ready to work inside that constraint.
- Active security clearance or ability to obtain one
- Familiarity with MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461, and related qualification standards
Education:BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field. What you've built matters more than where you went to school.
How You Operate:- Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build a prototype tomorrow than model it for a month
- You characterize your own systems before the field does
- Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment
- You debug from first principles, not intuition alone
- Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, controls, and software teams
- Self directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told
Why Join Aurelius Systems:- Build more in 1 month than most technicians build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.
- Career velocity is real. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact.
- Work on a problem that actually matters. Small cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer - infinite magazine, near zero cost per shot, scalable to every base, border, facility, and truck.
- Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built.
How We Work:Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up - nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show.
Benefits:- Competitive salary and equity
- United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Flexible 18 days PTO plus 5 sick days
- Travel to field test events and range days
- Covered daily lunches and office snacks and drinks
- E-bike and scooter stipend up to $500
- Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work
