Hardware Development Engineer

As an Hardware Development Engineer, you will play a crucial role in the NI ON PSE HW&TE GX Syst HW & CentEng 5 (L06) department. Your primary focus will be on thermal design, simulation, and optimization for a range of high-speed pluggable transceivers, ensuring they meet power, temperature, and reliability requirements. You will collaborate with various teams and drive thermal architecture decisions throughout the product development lifecycle. NILightpath Own thermal design, simulation, and optimization for OSFP, OSFP-XD, QSFP-DD, QSFP112, QSFP56, CFP, and future form factors. Develop thermal solutions for modules supporting 25G to 1.6T applications, ensuring compliance with specifications. Collaborate with mechanical, signal integrity, optics, electronics, manufacturing, and reliability teams. Select and optimize thermal solutions such as heat spreaders, sinks, vapor chambers, and heat pipes. Understand and manage module-to-cage thermal interfaces and host-system cooling interactions. Perform thermal simulations using FloTHERM and other thermal analysis tools and optimize airflow paths, pressure drops, and component temperatures. Correlate simulation results with lab measurements and drive design improvements. Conduct thermal validation and testing, including thermal characterization, airflow analysis, and power dissipation testing. B.E./B.Tech/M.E./M.Tech in Mechanical, Thermal, Aerospace Engineering, or related field. 3+ years of electronics cooling and thermal engineering experience. 2+ years of thermal design for pluggable optical modules (OSFP, QSFP-DD, CFP, SFP family). Strong understanding of thermal challenges in DSP/ASIC cooling, optical engines, and laser devices. Experience with FloTHERM and other thermal tools for thermal simulations and modeling. Ability to correlate simulation results with lab measurements and drive design improvements. Hands-on experience with thermal validation for optical transceivers or compact networking products. Proficiency in thermal validation tools and techniques, including thermocouples and IR imaging. Strong analytical skills, methodical approach, and excellent technical reporting abilities.