Lead Engineer: Heat Exchangers

Karman Industries

Karman Industries is a Torrance-based thermal technology company building the backbone for giga-scale AI infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and GE, Karman is moving beyond legacy cooling with the launch of the HPU (Heat Processing Unit)—a new category of thermal architecture designed for the 100kW+ rack era.

The HPU shrinks the exterior mechanical yard by up to 80% while reducing peak energy consumption by 10%+. Unlike traditional systems, the Karman HPU provides zero-water (WUE 0) cooling that ensures high-TDP GPUs and HBM4 memory stay at optimal thermal setpoints without throttling.

Founded in 2024, we’re a fast-growing team of passionate professionals dedicated to making a tangible impact on the future of humanity. We design, build, and test real hardware, and we lead with ownership: you’ll own your work from concept to hardware and help shape how we scale. Our values are Ownership, Performance Excellence, Radical Transparency, and Customer-Centricity.

Join us in our mission to transform the industry and contribute to a more sustainable world.

Lead Engineer, Heat Exchangers

Karman Industries is seeking an engineer to lead the design, development, and qualification of the heat exchangers in our CO₂ heating and cooling systems. The scope includes compact, high-pressure CO₂ exchangers such as printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs), along with the gas coolers and heat rejection equipment around them. The role also covers electronics cooling, including cold plate design. The role starts with our pilot CO₂ heat exchanger and PCHE prototype program and carries that work through to production-ready designs.

Karman is seeking both a hands-on technical leadership and individual contributor role. Successful candidates will do the engineering directly, set technical direction for the heat exchanger program, and build a small team as the company scales. Close collaboration with manufacturing is central to the role, as the designs must move from prototype to high-volume production.

Responsibilities

• Own the thermal and hydraulic design of CO₂ heat exchangers across the full operating envelope, including transcritical operation and the near-critical region, where thermophysical properties change rapidly.

• Evaluate and select exchanger technologies (PCHE, microchannel, plate-fin, brazed plate, and shell-and-tube) for each duty, weighing thermal performance, cost, size, weight, and manufacturability.

• Lead electronics cooling and cold plate design, including thermal and hydraulic performance, flow distribution, and integration with the facility cooling loop.

• Develop and validate rating and sizing models, and work with the system modeling team so that exchanger performance is carried accurately into cycle COP and facility efficiency.

• Lead the prototype-to-production process, including specifications, supplier selection, design reviews, test plans, and acceptance criteria.

• Work closely with internal manufacturing and exchanger suppliers to scale production, driving design for manufacturability, process qualification, cost, lead time, and quality.

• Own pressure equipment compliance for the heat exchangers, including ASME Section VIII, ASME B31.5, and applicable CO₂ refrigerant system requirements.

• Design for field conditions, including shipping envelope, skid packaging, thermal transients, fouling, freeze and dry-out risk, and serviceability.

• Support customer and partner technical discussions on exchanger performance and design decisions.

• Leadership role will need to recruit and mentor engineers, and establish engineering standards for the heat exchanger team.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of heat exchanger design experience, with a demonstrated record of taking designs from concept to fielded product.

• Strong command of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and two-phase and supercritical fluid flow.

• Direct experience with compact heat exchangers (PCHE, microchannel, plate-fin, or brazed construction).

• Working knowledge of high-pressure design codes and pressure equipment compliance.

• Experience working directly with manufacturing to transition designs from prototype to volume production.

• Experience in a fast-growing or scale-up environment with broad individual ownership and limited established process.

• Demonstrated technical leadership: setting direction, making sound decisions with incomplete information, and building alignment across teams.

• Ability to work onsite in the Los Angeles area.

Desired Skills and Experience

• Background in HVAC&R, data center cooling, power generation, cryogenics, or aerospace thermal systems.

• Experience with CO₂ (R744) systems, transcritical cycles, or supercritical CO₂ equipment.

• Experience with electronics thermal management, including liquid cold plates for high-power processors or power electronics.

• Experience qualifying new suppliers and manufacturing processes.

• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in mechanical, thermal, or chemical engineering.

• Experience developing engineering analysis tools, including CFD, FEA, and Python-based modeling.

Karman Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Karman Industries is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Direct applicants only — we are not working with outside recruiters or agencies for this role.