Thermal Mechanical Engineer - Milpitas, California, United States
$100,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 9 June 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Thermal Mechanical Engineer in the system engineering department, you will perform structural and thermal simulations to optimize the design of electro-optical sub-assemblies.
What you'll do
- Develop detailed FEA/CFD models of components, packages, optical-electronic modules, and system-level assemblies using simulation tools such as ANSYS, COMSOL, or equivalent platforms. - Correlate FEA results with experimental measurements, prototype test data, and hardware observations to improve model fidelity and guide design decisions. - Perform warpage and deformation analysis for multi-material assemblies, accounting for mismatch in thermal expansions, nonlinear material behavior, temperature gradients, and boundary conditions. - Develop thermal cycling and mechanical fatigue models to predict long-term reliability, including creep, stress relaxation, and interface degradation. - Identify mechanical risk drivers, analyze failures in electro-optical assemblies, and execute design activities including FMEA, tolerance analyses, and material selection. - Build end-to-end simulation workflows to automate processes and evaluate performance across diverse operating scenarios.
What you'll need
- M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related field. - 5+ years of hands-on modeling and simulation experience in the semiconductor industry. - Strong understanding of thermal conduction and convective heat transfer methodologies. - Deep knowledge of solid mechanics principles, including stress, strain, fatigue, creep, and constitutive models of elastic, visco-plastic, and plastic materials. - Proficiency with simulation tools such as ANSYS (Mechanical, Icepak, Fluent), COMSOL, or equivalent platforms, including nonlinear and transient analyses. - Working knowledge of lab-scale validation techniques.
Nice to have
- Experience with Ansys AEDT and Ansys Sherlock. - Understanding of advanced semiconductor packaging, solder joints, and reliability modeling techniques. - Knowledge of common optical system specifications and optical component specifications. - Exposure to SOC thermal mechanical analysis. - Exposure to optical structural analysis.
This role has been open 135 days — well above the 51-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1017
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$154k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | PsiQuantum | All employers we track in this specialty (1017 roles · 102 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 17 | 1017 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 33 | 6298 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 128 d | 51 d (+77 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $154k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 75 open roles · median 36 d
- KLA Corporation · 63 open roles · median 50 d
- Teradyne · 61 open roles · median 36 d
- NVIDIA · 51 open roles · median 68 d
- Applied Materials · 48 open roles · median 67 d
- AMD · 43 open roles · median 53 d
How we counted: 1017 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 102 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.