Battery Thermal Engineer || Cupertino, CA (Hybrid Role)

Job Description:

As a member of the Battery Modeling Team, the Battery Thermal Engineer will be responsible for thermal and multi‑physics modeling across all battery‑enabled products. This role focuses on developing advanced thermal, CFD, and finite‑volume models at the cell, pack, and BMS subsystem levels, enabling accurate prediction of thermal behavior and supporting design optimization.

The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Ansys Electronic Desktop (AEDT) and Icepak, strong fundamentals in thermal sciences and CFD, and experience translating electrical power maps into detailed thermal simulations. This role works closely with internal engineering teams and external CAE vendors to improve modeling workflows, tools, and methodologies.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop state‑of‑the‑art thermal and multi‑physics finite‑volume (FE) models for battery cells, modules, packs, and BMS subsystems.
• Generate modeling capability to convert electrical power maps into thermal outputs.
• Perform advanced thermal and CFD simulations to evaluate boundary conditions at the cell, pack, and system levels.
• Use best‑in‑class simulation tools and solvers to generate accurate thermal models and actionable results.
• Develop optimized workflows, reusable templates, and automation for recurring thermal and CFD simulations.
• Define and implement thermal modeling best practices across the Battery Modeling team.
• Collaborate with CAE tool vendors to influence feature development and improve solver functionality.
• Explore new analysis types and advanced solutions, including topological optimization techniques.
• Extract Reduced Order Models (ROMs) from CFD simulations to accelerate early‑stage and exploratory studies.
• Effectively communicate simulation results and recommendations to cross‑functional engineering teams.

Minimum Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Engineering with 3+ years of industry experience.
• Mechanical Engineering background with strong fundamentals in heat transfer, CFD, and thermal modeling.
• [MUST HAVE] Expert‑level experience with Ansys Electronic Desktop (AEDT) and Icepak.
• Experience with AEDT Python or other scripting languages for workflow automation.

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or PhD with 5+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Familiarity with lithium‑ion cells and battery pack architectures.
• Experience with electronics cooling at the component and system level.
• Working knowledge of Cadence Allegro and electronics layout design.
• Experience with additional simulation tools such as NX and COMSOL.
• Exposure to cross‑disciplinary electro‑thermal or electro‑mechanical simulations.

Battery Thermal Engineer

Responsibilities

• Build holistic thermal models that includes elements such as
• Power analysis
• Simulating loads in different use case scenarios
• Building a detailed model in Ansys Icepak,
• Running Python scripts for pre and post processing data
• Analyze resulting data
• Use insights to make design improvements
• Continuous cycle: build → test → analyze → iterate

Additional Notes

• Contractor will never interface with customers
• Core work:
• Build
• Simulate
• Generate results
• Improve / iterate
• Cadence experience is strongly preferred

Required Background

• Career level: Expert
• Minimum 5+ years of direct experience in a relevant Battery field
• MS or PhD is a hard requirement
• Ansys Icepak is a hard requirement
• Python is a hard requirement
• Experience with Cadence is strongly preferred
• During interviews:
• Open the tool live on screen
• Have candidates work directly in Icepak
• They must know the tool front to back
• Avoid employment gaps
• Tenure is very important to the manager, career history must be robust and make sense
• Domain experience:
  • Heavy industry or Data Center background is not really transferrable
• Any lithium‑ion battery with a BMS
• Automotive, aerospace, or consumer electronics are ideal backgrounds