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 52 Thermal Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1953 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 2015:

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 $123,856.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $111,314.

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 $108,858.

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	77.27%
Master's Degree	50.9%
Doctoral Degree	23.86%
Other	1.79%

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	18.93%
3 to 5 years	30.8%
6 to 8 years	14.95%
9+ years	35.32%

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 (33.44%)
Innovation (25.96%)
Planning (25.91%)
Leadership (24.88%)
Management (20.33%)
Writing (16.54%)
Operations (16.03%)
Problem Solving (15.87%)
Mentorship (15.77%)
Detail Oriented (13.62%)

Defining Skills

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

Thermal Design (18.12%)
Thermal Desktop (Thermal Modeling Software) (18.81%)
Thermal Modeling (17.97%)
Thermal Engineering (36.67%)
Computer-Aided Design (20.27%)
Aerospace Engineering (27.19%)
Thermal Testing (18.91%)
Thermal Management (56.63%)
Geothermal Heating (9.48%)
Thermal Systems (26.77%)
Heat Exchanger (23.05%)
Heat Transfer (32.74%)
Mechanical Engineering (48.87%)

Necessary Skills

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

Design Software (8.85%)
Mechanical Design (6.76%)
Site Assessment (9.38%)
Ansys Simulation Software (19.38%)
Energy Modeling (8.07%)
Agile Methodology (2.83%)
Data Analysis (8.49%)
HVAC (18.07%)
Electrical Engineering (8.91%)
SolidWorks (CAD) (8.43%)
Building Management System (9.11%)
Business Software (8.43%)
Chemical Engineering (12.78%)
Green Building (9.06%)
Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (8.01%)
Manufacturing Processes (4.61%)
Systems Engineering (15.72%)
Physics (8.33%)
MATLAB (16.5%)
Propulsion (6.23%)
Control Systems (13.51%)
Thermodynamics (16.29%)
Test Planning (10.84%)
Systems Design (8.96%)
Computational Fluid Dynamics (23.1%)
Failure Mode And Effects Analysis (4.35%)
Engineering Design Process (16.82%)
Finite Element Methods (11.68%)
Python (Programming Language) (17.44%)
Fluid Mechanics (12.36%)
Fluid Dynamics (11.73%)
Project Management (17.6%)
Mechanical Systems (12.36%)
Space Exploration (7.81%)
Valves (Piping) (8.59%)
New Product Development (10.79%)
Research And Development (9.38%)
Spacecraft (18.65%)
Thermal Analysis (27.97%)
Simulink (5.55%)
Test Data (9.64%)
Request For Proposal (8.85%)
Simulations (11%)
Root Cause Analysis (3.56%)
Sensors (8.54%)
Cooling Systems (15.98%)
Industry Standards (12.47%)
Export Control (15.72%)
Vehicle Design And Development (2.99%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Thermal Vacuum Testing (4.61%)
ANSYS IcePak (Simulation Software) (5.71%)
Thermal Simulation (6.29%)
FloTHERM (Thermal Analysis Software) (7.07%)
GT-SUITE (Simulation Software) (1.57%)
Aerodynamic Heating (3.46%)
Heat Pipe (4.82%)
Electronics Cooling (3.88%)

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 Modeling (24.26%)
Thermal Desktop (Thermal Modeling Software) (25.39%)
Thermal Engineering (49.5%)
FloTHERM (Thermal Analysis Software) (9.55%)
ANSYS IcePak (Simulation Software) (7.71%)
Thermal Testing (25.53%)
LMS Imagine.Lab Amesim (2.83%)
Heat Pipe (6.51%)
Thermal Management (76.45%)

Alternative Job Titles

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

Thermal Mechanical Engineer
Thermal Systems Engineer
Fluids Engineer
Thermal Analyst
Principal Engineer
Spacecraft Engineer
Aero-Thermal Engineer
Hydraulics Engineer
Hardware 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 (227)
CDM Smith (160)
Ford (115)
Raytheon Technologies (82)
GE Aerospace (57)
Chemours (45)
SpaceX (41)
L3Harris Technologies (38)
Jacobs Solutions (35)
Tesla (35)

North Carolina

CDM Smith (8)
GE Vernova (5)
Lenovo (5)
Actalent (4)
Siemens Energy (4)
Carrier Corporation (4)
Dewberry (4)
Vertiv (2)
Dewberry Engineers (2)
Trane Technologies (1)

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.

Engineering