Principal Engineer in Sheffield

The Principal Thermofluids Engineer is responsible for the design, analysis and optimisation of advanced liquid-cooling solutions for high-performance IT equipment, including CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, DIMMs, storage and networking hardware. The role ensures Iceotope’s systems deliver best-in-class thermal performance, energy efficiency and reliability, while enabling circularity and energy reuse in data centre and edge applications.

What you’ll do:

• Own the end-to-end thermal and fluid design of novel liquid-cooling solutions for high-power IT hardware, from concept through to validation and deployment.
• Specify and select internal components (heatsinks, cold plates, heat exchangers, pumps, valves, manifolds and hydraulic circuits) to achieve target temperatures, flow distribution and pressure drops.
• Define and recommend external system components (CDUs, chillers, dry coolers, strainers, heat rejection units) so that Iceotope equipment receives coolant at the correct temperature, pressure, flow rate and quality.
• Perform CFD and 1D system simulations (e.g. for immersion tanks, cold plates, manifolds and facility loops), including model setup, solution strategies, post-processing and correlation with test data.
• Provide technical leadership on fluid mechanics, heat transfer and liquid-cooling technologies, acting as the go-to subject matter expert for engineering, product and customer-facing teams.
• Work closely with Mechanical, Electronics, Systems and Manufacturing Engineering to integrate liquid-cooling solutions into product designs, balancing performance, cost, manufacturability and serviceability.
• Support the development of new dielectric cooling technologies, heatsinks, cold plates and system topologies to keep Iceotope at the forefront of direct-to-chip and immersion liquid-cooling innovation.
• Define test plans and support lab and field validation of thermal and hydraulic performance; use results to calibrate models and refine design rules and best practices.
• Prepare high-quality technical documentation, design reports, specifications and customer-facing materials that clearly communicate system performance and design intent.
• Act as a technical point of contact in customer and partner engagements, including data centre operators, hyperscalers, OEMs and technology partners.
• Mentor and coach junior engineers in thermofluids, CFD methods, design processes and good engineering practices.

What you’ll bring:

• Degree (or equivalent) in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related discipline, with Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics as core components; a higher degree or PhD in a relevant area is advantageous.
• Extensive industrial experience (10+ years) working on heat transfer and fluid-flow calculations, ideally in electronics, data centre, power, automotive, aerospace or similar high-performance applications.
• Deep understanding of convective and conductive heat transfer, boiling and phase-change behaviour, and the key parameters that drive thermal performance across different materials and geometries.
• Hands-on experience with commercial CFD tools (3D and/or 1D) for thermal and flow simulations.
• Track record of working effectively in multi-disciplinary engineering teams, concise communication and a collaborative approach.
• A pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset: comfortable balancing theory and modelling with real-world constraints, and able to make informed trade-offs that support business and customer goals.

Nice to have:

• Experience in electronics cooling, high-density compute, data centres or telecoms infrastructure, particularly with immersion, cold-plate or direct-to-chip liquid-cooling technologies.
• Proficiency with mechanical CAD (e.g. SolidWorks) for communicating and reviewing designs with the wider engineering team and suppliers.
• Familiarity with dielectric fluids, two-phase cooling, or other advanced cooling technologies used in next-generation IT and power electronics.
• Experience taking thermal designs from R&D into volume manufacture, including DFM considerations, supplier engagement and design validation/qualification.
• Exposure to controls, monitoring and diagnostics for cooling systems (e.g. sensors, flow/pressure/temperature monitoring, alarms and control logic).
• Demonstrated thought leadership in thermofluids (e.g. publications, conference presentations, industry working groups or standards bodies).

Why Iceotope?

At Iceotope, you’ll be part of a forward-thinking team that is transforming the landscape of data centre cooling. Our commitment to innovation and sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. Join us as we redefine the possibilities of IT infrastructure.