Thermal Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Thermal Engineer specializes in in thermodynamics used in the fields of heat transfers and energy conversion.

Job Outlook

There were 81 Thermal Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 2971 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Mechanical Engineer industry, which includes the Thermal Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:

Salary

Many new Thermal Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $121,277.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $121,277.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Thermal Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $102,134.

Education and Experience

Posted Thermal Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0%
Bachelor's Degree	68.9%
Master's Degree	49.18%
Doctoral Degree	29.55%
Other	3.13%

Posted Thermal Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	22.57%
3 to 5 years	35.76%
6 to 8 years	16.54%
9+ years	25.13%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Thermal Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Communication (37.56%)
Innovation (24.27%)
Operations (22.65%)
Research (19.42%)
Management (18.92%)
Leadership (18.92%)
Problem Solving (17.84%)
Planning (14.17%)
Writing (11.98%)
Detail Oriented (11.65%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Thermal Modeling (13.25%)
Thermal Design (17.09%)
Thermal Desktop (Thermal Modeling Software) (15.5%)
Thermal Engineering (27.46%)
Aerospace Engineering (21.91%)
Thermal Testing (14.77%)
Computational Fluid Dynamics (24.17%)
Mechanical Engineering (48.93%)
Heat Transfer (30.03%)
Python (Programming Language) (21.91%)
Thermal Analysis (23.2%)
Thermal Management (53.4%)
Thermal Systems (18.86%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Ansys Simulation Software (19.42%)
Mechanical Design (6.87%)
Materials Science (11.75%)
Space Flight (8.5%)
Systems Engineering (16.82%)
Data Analysis (13.52%)
Computer-Aided Design (10.96%)
HVAC (7.84%)
Propulsion (7.18%)
Finite Element Methods (12.41%)
Chemical Engineering (9.36%)
Control Systems (10.78%)
Thermodynamics (16.75%)
C++ (Programming Language) (10.19%)
Chemistry (11.27%)
Electrical Engineering (15.33%)
Procurement (7.94%)
Fluid Dynamics (14.7%)
Engineering Design Process (7.56%)
SolidWorks (CAD) (9.81%)
MATLAB (19.28%)
Manufacturing Processes (6.03%)
Physics (18.17%)
Fluid Mechanics (11.17%)
Product Design (3.22%)
Heat Exchanger (9.92%)
Project Management (14.22%)
New Product Development (11.1%)
Cooling Systems (5.62%)
Simulink (4.96%)
Spacecraft (13.45%)
Test Planning (10.89%)
Simulations (13.9%)
Systems Design (13%)
Test Data (9.92%)
Export Control (12.31%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

FloTHERM (Thermal Analysis Software) (6.97%)
ANSYS IcePak (Simulation Software) (6.93%)
Thermal Vacuum Testing (3.36%)
Thermal Hydraulics (5.69%)
GT-SUITE (Simulation Software) (2.05%)
Thermal Simulation (6.93%)
Aerodynamic Heating (1.94%)
LMS Imagine.Lab Amesim (3.05%)
Heat Pipe (4.16%)
RELAP5-3D (3.78%)
Electronics Cooling (3.19%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Thermal Vacuum Testing (5.33%)
Thermal Hydraulics (9.01%)
ANSYS IcePak (Simulation Software) (10.99%)
Thermal Analysis (36.76%)
Thermal Management (84.62%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Thermal Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Thermal Systems Engineer
Thermal Analyst
Hydraulics Engineer
Fluids Engineer
Thermal Mechanical Engineer
Graduate Technical Intern
Undergraduate Intern
Fluid Systems Engineer
Aero-Thermal Engineer

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Thermal Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Blue Origin (231)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (130)
Ford (87)
Northrop Grumman (60)
Intel (59)
SpaceX (58)
Raytheon Technologies (54)
Volt (48)
Chemours (47)
Sierra Nevada Corporation (39)

North Carolina

Actalent (15)
GE Vernova (9)
Lenovo (9)
Dewberry Engineers (5)
Siemens Energy (4)
Carrier Corporation (4)
Thermo Fisher Scientific (4)
Dewberry (3)
Dewberry & Davis (3)
Volvo (2)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

Textiles Master's Degrees

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

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