Hardware Thermal Simulation Engineering Intern at UIUC Research Park (January-August 2027)

About Us

Candidates should be available from January 11, 2027 to August 13, 2027.

Role Summary

As a Thermal Simulation Intern on the Hardware Thermal & Structural team, you'll work on a real project that supports the cooling and packaging of electronics in next-generation vehicles. You'll be paired with an experienced engineer and gain hands-on exposure to how thermal simulation drives hardware design decisions in automotive electronics.

Responsibilities

• Build and run thermal simulations (CFD and conduction models) to evaluate cooling performance of vehicle electronic hardware.
• Support the development of electronics cooling and packaging concepts, such as heat sinks, thermal interface materials, and enclosure layouts.
• Explore design trade-offs that reduce mass, cost, and material usage while meeting thermal targets.
• Help analyze thermal stack-ups and material choices, and summarize findings as clear recommendations for design engineers.
• Support thermal reliability assessments by working with mission profile data and IC package temperature limits.
• Automate repetitive analysis and post-processing tasks using scripting..
• Collaborate with engineers across mechanical, electrical, and reliability teams..
• Document your methods, results, and learnings, and present them to the team at the end of the internship

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
• Coursework or project experience in heat transfer and fluid mechanics.
• Familiarity with numerical simulation softwares.
• Ability to use AI tools such as Claude/Gemini to write and debug scripts, automate analysis and post-processing, and speed up learning, with the judgment to verify AI-generated output against engineering fundamentals.
• Must be located in Champaign, IL and able to work out of our office in the Research Park.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with a CFD or thermal simulation tool such as Flotherm, Ansys Icepak, Star-CCM+, Fluent, or similar (coursework, research, or student team projects count).
• Exposure to electronics cooling concepts, such as heat sinks, fans, thermal interface materials, or IC package thermal behavior..
• Experience with lab measurement techniques (thermocouples, IR imaging, flow measurement) from coursework or research.
• Interest in reliability, failure analysis, or validation methods.
• Research, publications, or thesis work in thermal management, heat transfer, or a related area

Total Rewards

We build the exceptional — and we believe the people doing that work should be rewarded accordingly. In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be is eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program.

In addition to our compensation programs, we invest in our people with a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the health, wellbeing, and financial future for full-time employees — including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs. Offerings vary by country. Learn more about our global benefit programs.

Equal Opportunity

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information or characteristics, physical or mental disability, marital/domestic partner status, age, military/veteran status, medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are also committed to ensuring compliance with all applicable fair employment practice laws regarding citizenship and immigration status.

Candidate Data Privacy

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies” may collect, use and disclose your personal information or personal data (within the meaning of the applicable data protection laws) when you apply for employment and/or participate in our recruitment processes (“Candidate Personal Data”). This data includes contact, demographic, communications, educational, professional, employment, social media/website, network/device, recruiting system usage/interaction, security and preference information. Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies may use your Candidate Personal Data for the purposes of (i) tracking interactions with our recruiting system; (ii) carrying out, analyzing and improving our application and recruitment process, including assessing you and your application and conducting employment, background and reference checks; (iii) establishing an employment relationship or entering into an employment contract with you; (iv) complying with our legal, regulatory and corporate governance obligations; (v) record keeping; (vi) ensuring network and information security and preventing fraud; and (vii) as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law.