Also called: Heat Transfer Engineer, Thermal Management Engineer
Keeps things from overheating, from phone chips and EV batteries to satellites.
You strap tiny temperature sensors to a gaming laptop and run it at full blast in a hot chamber. The graphics chip is running too hot, so you design a new copper heat pipe and a fan shape, simulate it, then test the fix the next day.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in mechanical engineering; master's helps for advanced roles.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering.
Growing much faster than average (about 9% over 10 years). Electronics, EVs and AI data centers all need more cooling experts.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI speeds thermal simulation and suggests heat-sink shapes; instrumenting prototypes, chamber testing and fixing real hot spots stays human.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Chemistry, Electronics class.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2141.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.