Senior Thermal Engineer

Thermal Engineer / Senior Thermal Engineer

Multiphysics Simulation Group — Predictive Engineering, Global Engineering Services

Reports to:	Engineering Manager, Thermal & High-Power Systems
Level:	Individual Contributor (Engineer / Senior Engineer)
Location:	Bengaluru, India (Global Technical Center)

We are looking for a thermal engineer whose command of heat transfer physics is genuinely deep — someone who reasons from governing equations, not solver defaults, and who wants to shape how the world's most thermally demanding electronics are designed.

ABOUT MOLEX & GLOBAL ENGINEERING SERVICES

Molex, a Koch Industries company, is a global electronics leader designing connectivity solutions for data center and AI infrastructure, automotive and EV platforms, medical devices, industrial automation, and aerospace and defense. With operations in more than 40 countries and a portfolio exceeding 100,000 products, Molex sits at the centre of the connected world.

The Global Engineering Services (GES) function at Molex's Global Technical Center (GTC) in Bengaluru is the simulation and predictive engineering backbone of the company. Within GES, the Predictive Engineering organization drives the transition toward Virtual Product Qualification (VPQ) — a north-star ambition in which physics-based simulation, digital twins and AI-assisted models replace prototype-heavy development cycles.

Thermal engineering is one of the highest-leverage disciplines in that mission. As AI compute density, hyperscale data centers and electrified transportation accelerate, the thermal envelope has become the binding constraint on product performance. This role sits squarely at that constraint.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As a Thermal Engineer or Senior Thermal Engineer within the Multiphysics Simulation Group, you will own thermal simulation programs across some of the most demanding applications in Molex's portfolio: liquid-cooled cold plates for AI data centers, high-density connector assemblies operating at 800G and beyond, high-power connectors for EV charging and industrial power delivery, and thermally sensitive medical and consumer devices.

This is a physics-first role. We are not looking for someone who can drive a solver GUI; we are looking for an engineer who understands conjugate heat transfer, can sanity-check a CFD result against a hand-calculated thermal resistance network, and knows when a turbulence model is being asked to do something it cannot do.

Working knowledge of AI/ML methods applied to thermal prediction — surrogate models, reduced-order models, physics-informed learning — is a meaningful bonus and will accelerate your growth here. It is not a prerequisite. Strong fundamentals are.

ROLE AT A GLANCE

Role Title	Thermal Engineer / Senior Thermal Engineer
Function	Global Engineering Services (GES) — Predictive Engineering
Team	Multiphysics Simulation Group
Reports to	Engineering Manager, Thermal & High-Power Systems
Location	Global Technical Center (GTC), Bengaluru
Experience	Engineer: 3–6 years | Senior Engineer: 6–10 years
Qualification	B.E./B.Tech required; M.Tech/M.E./MS in Thermal, Mechanical or allied strongly preferred
Primary Focus	Thermal & CFD simulation for high-power, liquid-cooled and data center product lines

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Thermal Simulation & Analysis

• Build, execute and interpret thermal and CFD simulations across conduction, convection, radiation and conjugate heat transfer for electronic assemblies, connectors and cooling systems.
• Develop thermal resistance networks, junction-temperature predictions, heat-spreading models and thermal interface material (TIM) characterisations.
• Model liquid cooling systems — cold plates, manifolds, microchannels — evaluating pressure drop, thermal resistance, flow uniformity and coolant path optimisation.
• Perform airflow and system-level cooling analysis for data center connectivity, server and rack-level thermal architectures.
• Conduct mesh independence studies, sensitivity analyses, and validation against analytical solutions and physical test data.

Engineering Judgement & Correlation

• Establish and defend boundary conditions, material models and turbulence model selections based on physics reasoning, not convention.
• Correlate simulation predictions against thermal test data; quantify confidence bounds and communicate uncertainty honestly to stakeholders.
• Identify when a simulation result is not physically credible and drive it to root cause rather than accepting a converged number.
• Contribute to thermal simulation standards, workflow documentation and internal methodology development.

Cross-Functional Delivery

• Partner with product engineering, systems and test teams across Molex's five divisions to translate thermal findings into design decisions.
• Communicate thermal physics clearly to non-specialist audiences — design engineers, program managers and business unit leadership.
• Support new product introduction (NPI) programs with thermal risk assessment and design-for-thermal recommendations.
• For Senior Engineers: mentor junior engineers and PGETs, review their simulation setups, and act as a technical reference point for the team.

Toward Predictive Engineering

• Contribute thermal simulation data and physical insight to surrogate model and digital twin development programs.
• Support the reduction of physical thermal testing through credible, well-correlated virtual qualification.
• Where interest and aptitude allow, participate in AI/ML-assisted thermal prediction initiatives — reduced-order models, regression-based correlations and physics-informed approaches.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required — Fundamentals Above All

• Deep, working command of conduction, convection, radiation, conjugate heat transfer, and the physical regimes in which each dominates. You can derive, not just recall.
• Thermal & Fluid Physics: Solid grasp of Navier-Stokes, boundary layers, turbulence modelling (RANS, k-ε, k-ω, SST), pressure-velocity coupling and the assumptions embedded in each.
• Fluid Mechanics: Understanding of finite volume discretisation, convergence, stability, mesh quality and numerical diffusion — and how each corrupts a result when neglected.
• Numerical Methods: Hands-on tool experience with at least one commercial CFD/thermal solver: Ansys Fluent, Ansys Icepak, Simcenter STAR-CCM+, Simcenter Flotherm, or OpenFOAM.
• B.E./B.Tech in Mechanical, Thermal, Aerospace or a closely related engineering discipline. M.Tech/M.E./MS strongly preferred, particularly with a thesis in heat transfer or fluid dynamics.
• Engineer level: 3–6 years of applied thermal simulation experience. Senior Engineer level: 6–10 years, with demonstrated independent ownership of thermal programs.
• Ability to sanity-check a simulation with a hand calculation — and the instinct to do so before presenting results.

Preferred

• Experience with electronics cooling: junction temperature prediction, package-level thermal characterisation, TIM selection, or heat sink design.
• Exposure to data center thermal management: OSFP/QSFP thermal qualification, co-packaged optics, server or rack airflow modelling.
• Familiarity with liquid cooling architectures and relevant standards or benchmarks (ASHRAE, OCP, JEDEC).
• Experience with high-power or EV thermal applications: power connectors, high-current paths, busbars, or charging systems.
• Scripting and automation for parametric studies or post-processing: Python, MATLAB, journal files or solver-native scripting.

Bonus — Not Required

• AI and machine learning capability is a genuine differentiator in this role, but it is explicitly a bonus rather than a prerequisite. We would rather hire an engineer with exceptional thermal fundamentals and teach them AI methods than the reverse.
• Familiarity with surrogate modelling or reduced-order thermal models.
• Exposure to regression-based thermal correlations, response surface methods, or design-of-experiments approaches.
• Awareness of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) or ML-accelerated CFD concepts.
• Experience with tools such as Ansys SimAI, DEP MeshWorks, HyperStudy, HEEDS, or comparable optimisation and surrogate platforms.

WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT

Technical fundamentals get you considered. Character determines how far you go. At Molex, a Koch company, we believe virtue precedes talent — and in simulation engineering, that belief has a very concrete meaning.

• Scientific integrity: you will not present a thermal result you do not believe, regardless of schedule pressure. You flag uncertainty rather than hiding it.
• Intellectual honesty about limitations: you know what your model does not capture, and you say so before someone else discovers it.
• Curiosity that predates the job: you have read papers, run side projects, or dug into solver theory because the physics interested you.
• Ownership: you treat a thermal problem as yours to solve, not as a ticket to close. You raise risks early.
• Humility with confidence: you hold strong physics opinions and remain genuinely open to being wrong.

KOCH PRINCIPLE-BASED MANAGEMENT (PBM®)

Molex operates under Koch's Principle-Based Management framework — a long-term, principled approach to value creation. For an engineer, PBM means your advancement is driven by the value you create and the character you demonstrate, not by tenure or title.

• Virtue & Talents: Character, integrity and intellectual honesty come first. We hire good people and develop great thermal engineers — never the reverse.
• Principled Entrepreneurship: See an unmet thermal simulation need? Build the capability. Initiative is expected, not merely tolerated. Opportunity here is genuinely unlimited.
• Knowledge Creation: Simulation is only as valuable as the learning it generates. Challenge assumptions, document what you discover, and improve the team's collective capability.
• Self-Actualization: Your ceiling is not set by your job title. It is set by the value you create and the depth of expertise you choose to build.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

The thermal problems in this role are real, current, and consequential. Representative areas include:

• CFD-driven design and qualification of cold plate configurations for AI and high-performance computing — thermal resistance, pressure drop and flow uniformity characterisation.
• Thermal qualification of high-density connector and cage assemblies operating at 800G and beyond, including co-packaged optics thermal management.
• Electro-thermal analysis of power connectors for EV charging, industrial power distribution and high-current interconnects.
• Contributing physics insight and simulation data to reduced-order thermal models that predict temperature fields in seconds rather than hours.
• Thermal analysis serving Transportation & Industrial, Datacom & Specialty, Medical & Pharma, Consumer & Commercial, and Aerospace & Defense product lines.

WHY THIS ROLE

Work on thermal problems at the genuine frontier of electronics — AI data center cooling is one of the defining engineering challenges of this decade.

• Access to a full commercial toolchain (Ansys, Simcenter, STAR-CCM+) alongside emerging AI/ML simulation platforms.
• Sit within a research-oriented simulation group whose outputs shape product qualification decisions globally, not a downstream execution function.
• Clear technical growth path from Engineer to Senior Engineer to Technical Lead, with progression driven by contribution.
• A culture that values physics rigour, engineering integrity and long-term capability building over short-term output metrics.

Molex is an equal opportunity employer. We believe diverse perspectives make us stronger.