Thermal Engineering Intern

About Dispatch

Dispatch is building refurbishable reentry vehicles for in-space manufacturing. Spark-1 is our first vehicle, a 150 kg spacecraft that hosts payloads in orbit and brings them back to Earth.

Our vehicles are designed, built, and operated in-house, from spacecraft systems and flight software through reentry and recovery.

About This Role

Internships at Dispatch are in person in San Francisco. We're hiring for Spring 2027 and Summer 2027. In your application, tell us which term you're applying for, or both. Candidates must be actively pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree. Due to U.S. export control requirements, candidates must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen or permanent resident). We are unable to sponsor visas.

The Thermal team is responsible for the analysis, hardware, and test that keep Spark-1 and its payloads within temperature limits through on-orbit operations, deorbit, and atmospheric entry.

Interns at Dispatch work directly on problems that affect upcoming missions. You'll own meaningful technical work and collaborate closely with engineers across mechanical, avionics, and vehicle systems as we design, test, and operate Spark-1.

Responsibilities

• Own or contribute to thermal analysis of the spacecraft bus, payload deck, and deployables across on-orbit, deorbit, and reentry cases

• Build and maintain thermal models in Thermal Desktop, FEMAP/Simcenter, or custom tools and correlate them to test data

• Size heaters, radiators, thermal straps, and insulation, and define heater control zones and setpoints

• Analyze cryocooler and high power payload thermal chains, including parasitic loads and conductive paths to radiators

• Plan and support thermal vacuum and thermal balance testing, including sensor placement, test procedures, and data reduction

Basic Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a BS, MS, or PhD in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field

• Experience through coursework, research, internships, or engineering project teams in one or more areas of heat transfer, spacecraft thermal control, thermal analysis, or thermal testing

• Familiarity with thermal analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop, FEMAP/Simcenter, ANSYS, or scripted models in Python or MATLAB

• Comfortable predicting a temperature by analysis, measuring it in test, and reconciling the two

Preferred Skills and Experience

• At least one year of experience on a technical project team such as CubeSat, Rocket Team, AIAA Design-Build-Fly, Formula SAE, or similar

• Previous experience with spacecraft thermal control design or analysis for CubeSats, satellites, or other flight programs

• Familiarity with cryogenics, cryocoolers, two-phase systems such as loop heat pipes or pumped loops, or thermal protection systems

• Experience with thermal vacuum testing, thermocouple instrumentation, or data acquisition systems

• Strong communication and technical documentation skills

Due to U.S. export control requirements, candidates must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen or permanent resident). We are unable to sponsor visas.