Manager, Environmental Control Systems & Thermal Engineering (R6306)

Seattle · USD 200,000-300,000 / year · 8+ years experience · Onsite · Posted Oct 18, 2026

At a glance

As Manager, Environmental Control Systems & Thermal, you will directly lead and develop a team of individual contributors responsible for environmental control systems, aircraft thermal management, and associated fluid and heat-transfer hardware on the X-BAT program.
This position requires a balance of direct people leadership, technical judgment, and hands-on engagement when needed in a fast-moving aircraft development environment.
The ideal candidate is an experienced engineering manager who can set clear priorities, grow strong engineers, create a high technical bar, and help the team deliver meaningful capability to operators quickly.

Manage, mentor, and develop individual contributors; set goals, give feedback, support growth, and build a high-trust, high-standard team.
Set priorities, ownership, staffing, and execution cadence for X-BAT and Group 5 work; remove blockers and manage dependencies.
Guide ECS and thermal architecture, trades, and design reviews across thermal environments, cooling, airflow, ducting, heat exchangers, fluid circuits, and related hardware.
Set expectations for requirements, reviews, verification, risk management, configuration control, and design release through flight-ready hardware.
Resolve interfaces with structures, propulsion, avionics, EWIS, payloads, manufacturing, systems engineering, and test teams.
Lead component, qualification, ground, and flight test planning; ensure data, anomaly resolution, and corrective actions support hardware delivery.
Set expectations for components, specifications, SOWs, supplier reviews, prototype builds, and acceptance activities.
Engage in first-principles analysis and root-cause investigations, coach engineers, and unblock complex technical problems.
Represent the team in program and engineering reviews; communicate decisions, risks, progress, resources, and dependencies.

US Citizens Only & Must have an Active Secret or higher clearance.
8+ years in aerospace environmental control systems, thermal engineering, fluid systems, or comparable aircraft mechanical systems development.
Experience directly managing and developing individual contributors, including setting expectations, giving feedback, and supporting career growth.
B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Deep understanding of thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and aircraft thermal management.
Ability to guide architecture, requirements, analysis, design, integration, and verification through hardware delivery.
Sound engineering judgment, early risk identification, and clear communication across technical and program teams.
Record of working hard, building trust, maintaining high standards, and treating others with kindness.

Experience managing engineers on UAV, autonomous aircraft, fighter, tactical aircraft, or other high-performance aerospace programs.
Experience with Group 5 aircraft, aircraft-level thermal management, ECS, or integrated fluid and thermal systems.
Hands-on experience with thermal and fluid testing, instrumentation, data acquisition, model correlation, or flight-test troubleshooting.
Experience with first-principles analysis, fluid-thermal network modeling, CFD, or thermal-analysis tools such as FloEFD, STAR-CCM+, Thermal Desktop, Amesim, or Flowmaster.
Familiarity with aerospace environmental, qualification, and airworthiness practices, including MIL-STD-810, MIL-HDBK-516, RTCA DO-160, and SAE AIR or ARP standards.
Experience with aerospace suppliers, COTS or custom components, technical specifications, SOWs, and prototype or vehicle-level test setups.
Experience hiring, onboarding, and scaling a small engineering team in a rapid R&D or production environment.
Advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline.