Thermal Engineer

About the Team

OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI models. In addition to delivering production-grade silicon for OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure, the team also creates custom design tools and methodologies that accelerate innovation and enable hardware optimized specifically for AI.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Thermal Engineer with 7+ years of experience in thermal management of IT hardware from chip/package to system levels. You’ll work alongside experts in thermal, mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineering to support the design, analysis, and validation of thermal solutions that ensure the reliability, efficiency, and longevity of mission-critical hardware. This position requires strong analytical skills, hands-on testing experience, and the ability to work in a fast-paced, cross-disciplinary environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and optimize thermal solutions for data center hardware, including chips, power modules, and system-level cooling architectures

• Evaluate thermal performance at the chip, package, and board levels, addressing challenges related to power density, heat dissipation, and thermal interface materials

• Perform thermal modeling and simulation to predict temperature profiles and identify thermal bottlenecks

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate thermal management strategies into hardware design, from concept to mass production

• Support lab testing and validation, including the setup of thermal experiments, data acquisition, and troubleshooting of thermal performance issues

• Design and select thermal components, such as cold plates, heat sinks, fans, vapor chambers, and thermal interface materials (TIMs)

• Work with firmware and electrical engineers to define and implement thermal control algorithms for dynamic power and cooling management.

• Conduct feasibility studies and trade-off analyses to evaluate cooling technologies and improve system thermal efficiency

• Partner with suppliers and manufacturers to support the development of custom thermal components and ensure quality in production

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, or a related field (Master’s preferred).

• 7+ years of industry experience in thermal design, simulation, and validation for IT hardware

• Proficiency in thermal simulation software and CAD tools

• Strong understanding of heat transfer principles, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics, with an emphasis on electronics cooling

• Hands-on experience with thermal testing equipment, including thermocouples, infrared cameras, wind tunnels, and P-Q characterization setups

• Experience in chip/package-level thermal analysis, including die-level heat spreading, and package thermal modeling

• Ability to analyze experimental data, identify root causes of thermal issues, and implement corrective actions

• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to perform first-principles calculations to support design decisions.

• Self-driven, detail-oriented, and able to work independently or collaboratively in cross-functional engineering environments

Preferred Skills

• 10+ years of industry experience in thermal design, simulation, and validation for IT hardware

• Extensive experience with data center hardware or high-performance computing systems at scale

• Practical experience in developing advanced cooling technologies

• Familiarity with thermal control algorithms and dynamic thermal management techniques

• Understanding of reliability testing, failure analysis, and thermal stress testing for electronic components

• Experience working with suppliers and manufacturing partners to support thermal solution development and production ramp-up

To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements as provided in those laws and regulations.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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