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 66 Thermal Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 2643 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 $110,323.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $110,230.

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 $96,789.

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	2.42%
Bachelor's Degree	80.44%
Master's Degree	42.49%
Doctoral Degree	22.02%
Other	1.7%

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	15.92%
3 to 5 years	35.34%
6 to 8 years	11.34%
9+ years	37.41%

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.

Planning (32.54%)
Communication (30.91%)
Writing (24.44%)
Mentorship (23.5%)
Leadership (20.85%)
Sales (18.05%)
Innovation (17.44%)
Problem Solving (17.14%)
Management (16.53%)
Research (13.73%)

Defining Skills

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

Geothermal Heating (16.74%)
Thermal Management (54.27%)
Thermal Engineering (30.23%)
Mechanical Engineering (53.54%)
Thermal Systems (22.18%)
Thermal Desktop (Thermal Modeling Software) (19.08%)
Thermal Design (17.4%)
Heat Transfer (33.37%)
Thermal Testing (14.92%)
Computer-Aided Design (29.91%)

Necessary Skills

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

Heat Exchanger (25.06%)
Product Support (3.07%)
Energy Modeling (15.5%)
Ansys Simulation Software (18.92%)
Request For Proposal (16.59%)
Green Building (16.47%)
HVAC (22.3%)
MATLAB (15.42%)
Chemical Engineering (20.9%)
Building Automation (15.77%)
Export Control (11.66%)
Site Assessment (16.39%)
Research And Development (17.13%)
Control Systems (9.52%)
Thermal Modeling (18.53%)
Algorithms (4.74%)
Thermal Analysis (27.31%)
Fluid Mechanics (10.1%)
Data Analysis (5.63%)
Test Planning (10.1%)
Business Software (15.58%)
Mechanical Systems (21.68%)
Simulations (10.33%)
Thermodynamics (16.67%)
Computer Science (6.6%)
Aerospace Engineering (18.96%)
Finite Element Methods (10.76%)
C (Programming Language) (4.27%)
Python (Programming Language) (15.89%)
Systems Design (9.32%)
Cooling Systems (22.26%)
Design Software (15.62%)
Computational Fluid Dynamics (22.46%)
Project Management (25.99%)
New Product Development (10.37%)
Test Data (7.93%)
AutoCAD (4.43%)
Physics (9.4%)
Engineering Design Process (24.01%)
Electrical Engineering (6.45%)
Fluid Dynamics (11.54%)
Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (15.62%)
Spacecraft (14.14%)
R (Programming Language) (4.12%)
Systems Engineering (13.29%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Electronics Cooling (3.3%)
Thermal Simulation (4.2%)
ANSYS IcePak (Simulation Software) (3.96%)
Fluid Simulation (1.36%)
Heat Pipe (3.85%)

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 Desktop (Thermal Modeling Software) (100%)

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
Aero-Thermal Engineer
Hydraulics Engineer
Fluids Engineer
Thermal Analyst
Principal Engineer
Spacecraft Engineer
Processing 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

CDM Smith (430)
Blue Origin (156)
Raytheon Technologies (132)
Ford (107)
SpaceX (65)
Northrop Grumman (64)
Boeing (63)
Ansys (59)
Black & Veatch (52)
GE Aerospace (39)

North Carolina

CDM Smith (15)
Actalent (8)
Black & Veatch (6)
Siemens Energy (4)
Lenovo (4)
GE Vernova (3)
Cynet Systems (3)
GE Aerospace (3)
Corvid Technologies (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!

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