Senior Principal Thermal Engineer

Job Description:

HPE is seeking a Senior Principal Thermal Engineer who is a recognized authority in advanced thermal management technologies for high-performance networking, AI, compute, and data-center hardware. This role will define and drive the future thermal technology vision, architectures, methodologies, and innovation roadmaps spanning advanced air cooling, liquid cooling, hybrid cooling, and emerging thermal solutions. The engineer will identify, evaluate, and mature next-generation cooling technologies, guide long-term platform strategies, influence industry direction, and solve critical business and customer challenges. Through deep technical leadership and innovation, this individual will deliver substantial, long-lasting impact in performance, reliability, energy efficiency, sustainability, cost optimization, and product differentiation. The successful candidate will influence executive and cross-functional decisions, shape technology investments, collaborate with industry partners and suppliers, contribute to standards development, mentor engineers, and strengthen HPE's technical community.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term thermal technology vision, strategy, and roadmap for HPE Networking products spanning advanced air cooling, liquid cooling, hybrid cooling, and emerging thermal management technologies.
• Identify, evaluate, mature, and recommend next-generation cooling technologies required to support future AI, networking, high-performance compute, and data-center platforms.
• Establish organization-wide thermal architectures, design methodologies, technology standards, modeling practices, and validation frameworks used across multiple business units and product generations.
• Serve as the senior technical authority and thought leader for advanced thermal management technologies, including high-performance heat sinks, vapor chambers, heat pipes, fan and airflow systems, cold plates, manifold architectures, immersion cooling, coolant distribution systems, facility water integration, and emerging two-phase cooling solutions.
• Lead early-stage technology investigations, proof-of-concept development, feasibility studies, competitive benchmarking, and technology readiness assessments to enable future product roadmaps.
• Evaluate thermal implications of future silicon, optics, packaging, power delivery, rack-scale architectures, and AI infrastructure trends; develop cooling strategies that enable next-generation performance requirements.
• Define technical requirements and assessment criteria for new cooling technologies, including thermal performance, airflow management, coolant flow distribution, reliability, energy efficiency, sustainability, serviceability, manufacturability, acoustic performance, and total cost of ownership.
• Review critical product architectures and provide expert guidance on thermal design tradeoffs, risk mitigation strategies, and technology selection decisions.
• Evaluate strategic suppliers, development partners, universities, startups, and technology providers to identify breakthrough innovations applicable to future HPE platforms.
• Mentor thermal engineers across the organization and help develop the next generation of technical leaders within HPE.

Education and Experience Required

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Sciences, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related engineering discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• Typically 15+ years of experience in thermal engineering, electronics cooling, or related disciplines, including recognized expertise in advanced air-cooling and/or liquid-cooling technologies.
• Demonstrated technical leadership and industry impact through development of innovative thermal solutions, advanced technology programs, major architecture contributions, or pioneering cooling technologies.
• Proven ability to influence technology direction across organizations, business units, suppliers, customers, and industry groups.

Knowledge and Skills

• Deep expertise in electronics thermal management technologies, including advanced air cooling, liquid cooling, hybrid cooling architectures, and emerging cooling technologies for networking, AI, compute, and data-center applications.
• Expert understanding of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, airflow optimization, heat sink design, vapor chambers, heat pipes, cold plates, heat exchangers, flow distribution, pressure drop, and thermal system optimization.
• Advanced knowledge of air-cooled architectures, including system airflow management, fan technologies, acoustic optimization, thermal control strategies, and high-density electronics cooling.
• Extensive experience with thermal and CFD simulation tools such as FloTHERM, FloEFD, Icepak, Star-CCM+, Macroflow, or equivalent platforms.
• Strong understanding of technology readiness assessment, feasibility studies, experimental design, thermal characterization, and performance validation techniques.
• Knowledge of future industry trends involving AI infrastructure, high-density networking systems, advanced semiconductor packaging, co-packaged optics, photonics, rack-scale architectures, and sustainable data-center technologies.
• Outstanding analytical and creative problem-solving skills with the ability to identify disruptive technologies and translate them into strategic business value.
• Strong business acumen and executive-level communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders ranging from engineering teams to senior leadership and external partners.
• Demonstrated record of innovation through patents, industry publications, conference presentations, standards participation, or successful deployment of differentiated cooling technologies.

Accessibility

HPE is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible workplace and encourages applications from all qualified individuals, including those with disabilities. If you believe you require accommodation during any stage of the application or interview process, please submit your request by completing our secure form linked here.

Note: This option is reserved for applicants needing assistance/reasonable accommodation related to a disability.

Health & Wellbeing

We strive to provide our team members and their loved ones with a comprehensive suite of benefits that supports their physical, financial and emotional wellbeing.

Personal & Professional Development

We also invest in your career because the better you are, the better we all are. We have specific programs catered to helping you reach any career goals you have — whether you want to become a knowledge expert in your field or apply your skills to another division.

Unconditional Inclusion

We are unconditionally inclusive in the way we work and celebrate individual uniqueness. We know varied backgrounds are valued and succeed here. We have the flexibility to manage our work and personal needs. We make bold moves, together, and are a force for good.

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Information about employee benefits offered in the US can be found at https://myhperewards.com/main/new-hire-enrollment.html

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