Thermal Engineering Intern

Apply on YC · Original job listing

• Role: Engineering / Mechanical
• School year: Any
• Visa: US citizen/visa only

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