---
title: 'Lead Thermal Engineer at Starcloud'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-thermal-engineer-starcloud-redmond-718psg54njf6'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Lead Thermal Engineer at Starcloud

- **Company:** Starcloud
- **Location:** Redmond, WA
- **Posted:** 2026-06-22
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/starcloud/jobs/5275989008

## Job description

Company Overview:

Starcloud is building a network of data centers in space, starting at kilowatts and scaling to gigawatt capacity. Falling launch costs allow us to take advantage of the abundant energy, radiative cooling techniques, and ability to rapidly scale in space. Join our team, push the boundaries of the space economy, and be part of this pioneering effort to redefine the future of energy.

## Who we are

Starcloud is building data centers in space. By moving compute into orbit, we tap nearly unlimited solar power and radiate heat straight into the cold of space, escaping the energy and cooling limits that constrain data centers on Earth. We launched our first spacecraft last year and have three more flying over the next 18 months, each a different architecture, giving us an unusually fast design-build-test-fly loop. We're a small team of exceptional engineers, backed by leading investors, building in person in Redmond, WA.

## The role

You'll own the thermal architecture, design, analysis, testing, and flight execution of the thermal control systems that keep our space-based data centers alive. It's a hands-on leadership role: deep individual technical contribution plus building and leading the thermal engineering team. The scale here is closer to automotive and data center cooling than to standard spacecraft thermal design, so expect to pursue novel concepts, test them fast on the ground, and validate them in orbit.

## What you'll do

- Own the thermal architecture: active and passive thermal control across the spacecraft.
- Design the active loop: cold plates, coolant loops, pumps, heat exchangers, thermal interfaces, insulation, heaters, and large lightweight deployable radiators.
- Lead the hard trades: performance, mass, cost, reliability, manufacturability, schedule, and operational constraints.
- Push novel concepts: prototype rapidly, test on the ground, validate in orbit.
- Model and correlate: build and correlate thermal models for spacecraft, payloads, and subsystems against real test and flight data.
- Deliver flight hardware end to end: concept through manufacturing, integration, test, qualification, and launch, improving across successive spacecraft.
- Build the team: hire, manage, and mentor the thermal engineering team, and set the standards, review practices, and verification workflows.

## What we're looking for

- BS in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
- 8+ years of hands-on thermal engineering: design, analysis, hardware development, and test.
- Strong command of thermal analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop, Ansys, or equivalent.
- Experience with active thermal control in a demanding environment: space, power, automotive, data center, food/manufacturing, or petroleum.
- Comfortable managing engineers while staying deeply hands-on.

## Nice to have

- Experience formally leading a thermal engineering team.
- High-power thermal systems: pumped fluid loops, large radiators, industrial heat exchangers, data center cooling, power-plant systems, automotive thermal, refrigeration, or petroleum process systems.
- Experience leading development from architecture through qualification and production or flight.

Eligibility

This role requires access to information controlled under U.S. export laws. Candidates must be a U.S. person (citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual) under ITAR/EAR.

## Compensation and benefits

Annual salary: $200,000 - $250,000 USD

Starcloud offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including stock options, discretionary bonuses, medical, vision, dental, 401(k) with company match, disability and life insurance, paid parental leave, vacation, holidays, and sick leave.

Don't quite fit?

If this isn't an exact match but you're exceptional at what you do, tell us what you'd own and why Starcloud, and apply anyway.

Additional Requirements:

- Willingness to work extended hours and weekends as necessary to support critical project milestones.
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or eligible for authorization under U.S. export regulations.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Starcloud is committed to fostering an inclusive and meritocratic workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should notify our Human Resources Department.

Join Starcloud and shape the future!

Embrace the challenge, push technological boundaries, and contribute to solving the global energy challenge. Apply today to join our visionary team dedicated to innovation and advancing humanity.

We receive many applications, and so we apologize that we may not be able to respond to every applicant.

## About Starcloud

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Starcloud designs, builds, and deploys orbital data centers that leverage continuous solar energy and radiative cooling to power AI training and inference at gigawatt scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A – $170M raised at $1.1B valuation in March 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Redmond, Washington, USA
- **Founded**: January 2024
- **Founders**: Philip Johnston (CEO), Ezra Feilden (CTO), Adi Oltean (Chief Engineer)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Space-based computing infrastructure / AI infrastructure
- **Target customers**: Hyperscale cloud providers, AI companies, defense agencies, and crypto-mining operators (B2B)
- **Mission**: “Change the paradigm of hyperscale data centers by deploying the largest training clusters on data centers in space, enabling the future of AI without terrestrial constraints.”

## Products & Services
- **Orbital Data Center Services**: GPU compute capacity in orbit – initially offering inference and training on Nvidia H100 GPUs, with plans to scale to micro data centers and eventually gigawatt “Hyperclusters” using Starship-class launch vehicles.
- **Starcloud-1 (Demonstrator)**: First satellite launched November 2025, equipped with an Nvidia H100 GPU – the most powerful GPU ever put in orbit. Used to train nanoGPT and run high-powered inference on synthetic-aperture radar data from Capella Space.
- **Planned Bitcoin Mining Service**: Announced intention to fly Bitcoin mining ASICs on its second satellite (Starcloud-2) in 2026.
- **Crusoe Cloud Integration**: Partnership to deploy Crusoe’s cloud platform on a Starcloud satellite by late 2026, with GPU capacity available from early 2027.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $1.1 billion (as of March 2026 Series A) – fastest unicorn in Y Combinator history, reaching that milestone 17 months after completing the YC program.
- **Total Funding**: ~$204M ($34M seed + $170M Series A)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Benchmark (lead), EQT Ventures (co-lead), Sequoia scout fund, A16z scout fund, In-Q-Tel, NFX, Plug and Play, angel investors including AI expert Jan Leike. Partners include SpaceX (Starlink mini-lasers for connectivity), Nvidia (Inception program), Google Cloud Accelerator, Defense Innovation Unit, Crusoe Cloud.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Launched first test satellite with 100x more GPU power than any prior orbital mission.
  - First company to train a large language model (nanoGPT) in orbit.
  - Signed contract with SpaceX to integrate Starlink mini-lasers onto next 25 satellites.
  - Filed FCC proposal for a constellation of up to 88,000 satellites.
  - Expanded from 3 founders to 15 employees (2026) with active hiring across engineering disciplines.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover advantage** in orbital data centers with proven in-orbit GPU operation and LLM training.
- **Radically lower energy/cooling costs**: Continuous solar energy (no batteries needed for daytime orbit) and passive radiative cooling eliminate the need for massive cooling infrastructure.
- **Rapid scalability without terrestrial permitting**: Can bypass the physical and regulatory constraints that limit Earth-based data center expansion.
- **Elite founding team**: CEO Philip Johnston (ex-McKinsey, Harvard/Wharton/Columbia), CTO Ezra Feilden (PhD, ex-Airbus Defence & Space, NASA Lunar Pathfinder), Chief Engineer Adi Oltean (ex-SpaceX tracking beams lead, 20-year Microsoft Azure GPU cluster veteran, 25+ patents).

## Strategic Focus
- **Near-term (2026–2027)**: Complete Starcloud-1 demonstrator mission, prototype micro-data center, secure contracts with hyperscalers, and launch Starcloud-2 with Bitcoin mining ASICs.
- **Medium-term**: Deploy a constellation of data-center satellites with Starlink laser links, scaling to hundreds of megawatts.
- **Long-term**: Build gigawatt-scale Hyperclusters using Starship-class launch vehicles, enabling massive AI training without environmental or permitting limits.

## Why Work Here
- **Cutting-edge deep-tech**: Work at the intersection of space systems, AI infrastructure, and high-performance computing – a rare combination.
- **Small, ambitious team** (15 people as of 2026) – offers outsized impact and ownership.
- **Founders with proven track records** at SpaceX, Microsoft Azure, and Airbus – strong mentorship and engineering culture.
- **Location**: Redmond, WA – close to SpaceX Starlink, Amazon Project Kuiper, and Microsoft Azure data center teams.
- **Open roles**: Electrical, Mechanical (loads, dynamics, mechanisms, satellite bus, solar), Thermal, Power Electronics, GNC, Software, Facilities, Head of Electrical Engineering, Head of Thermal Engineering – all in-office.
- **Culture**: Described as “innovative deep-tech engineers with big ambitions” – fast-paced, hands-on, and focused on rapid iteration.

## Sources
1. [starcloud.com](https://www.starcloud.com/) – company overview, white paper, team bios
2. [starcloud.com/team](https://www.starcloud.com/team) – founder and team details
3. [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starcloud) – history, funding, partnerships, milestones
4. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/starcloud) – YC profile, achievements, mission
5. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/starcloud) – current job listings (12 open roles)

## Other roles at Starcloud

- [Senior Harness Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-harness-engineer-starcloud-redmond-xptccrh7eak3) — Redmond, WA
- [Lead Electrical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-electrical-engineer-starcloud-redmond-mja9f5hn7w77) — Redmond, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer (Loads and Dynamics)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-loads-and-dynamics-starcloud-redmond-ck55x6k0r2aq) — Redmond, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer (Solar)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-solar-starcloud-redmond-114g11kxkhbx) — Redmond, WA
- [Thermal Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/thermal-engineer-starcloud-redmond-vxhz7qy3wd1d) — Redmond, WA
- [Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-starcloud-redmond-j94a2n9as1x1) — Redmond, WA
- [Power Electronics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/power-electronics-engineer-starcloud-redmond-e1qan6r6tn7m) — Redmond, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer (Mechanisms)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-mechanisms-starcloud-redmond-cbcz8g5a5c3m) — Redmond, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer (Satellite Bus)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-satellite-bus-starcloud-redmond-jc4bmvbk61sy) — Redmond, WA
- [Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/guidance-navigation-control-gnc-engineer-starcloud-redmond-3fege46ntm3k) — Redmond, WA