Thermal Simulation Engineer at Alcon

At Alcon, we're passionate about enhancing sight and helping people see brilliantly. With more than 25,000 associates, we innovate fearlessly, champion progress, and act swiftly to impact global eye health. We foster an inclusive culture, recognizing your contributions and offering opportunities to grow your career like never before. Together, we make a difference in the lives of our patients and customers. Are you ready to join us?

This role is part of Alcon's Engineering function, a team focused on improving quality, processes, products, packaging and materials across our business to help deliver brilliant outcomes. The Thermal Simulation Engineer will be located at Alcon's R&D location in Lake Forest, CA and will be primarily responsible for helping develop computational models and simulations to assess medical device performance, using advanced numerical techniques to support virtual prototyping and product design. The Thermal Simulation Engineer will support and analyze the design of thermal management systems for ophthalmic surgical consoles and diagnostics systems, plan and execute simulation projects in the area of thermal analysis to support Surgical R&D project teams in the development of medical devices in order to reduce time and expense of device development and provide faster market access to safe and effective medical device technology, support thermal test planning and data analysis to correlate simulation results with experimental data, investigate and evaluate existing simulation technology and implement new methods and processes as needed to provide simulation driven innovative product development and perform simulation for regulatory submission activities and post launch support for Global Medical Affairs and/or Market Access.

In this role, a typical day will include:

• Perform a wide range of technical work in the area of thermal management of electronics. Requires strong analytical skills and through understanding of conjugate heat transfer.
• Expert user of Icepak, Floefd with demonstrated ability to efficiently model and simulate complex assemblies and perform convergence studies.
• Requires strong analytical skills and through understanding of all modes of Heat Transfer and experience in using constitutive thermal models with ability to perform board level analysis leveraging ECAD, component level and module/system level.
• Ability to verify and validate simulation with experimental results.
• Define thermal management simulation scope, requirements and objectives, collaborate with product team to determine timelines, complete work, present results and ensure on-time completion of projects.
• Provide direction to mechanical and electrical engineers early on into the project to minimize/eradicate thermal and mechanical design issues.
• Address unmet technical needs by developing and verifying new methods and techniques, leveraging knowledge of product portfolio. Leverage subject matter experts to build new capabilities and effectively incorporate into thermal management simulation plans for the benefit of projects.
• Establish effective solutions for complex problems that involve interaction of several technical disciplines using technical analysis and problem-solving capabilities.
• Develop large models of complex systems involving multiple physics to serve as virtual prototypes in support of all phases of product development, from early-stage research, exploratory concept development and confirmatory through production release.
• Utilize AI/ML methods such as supervised learning (e.g., regression models, neural networks), reinforcement learning and surrogate modeling for simulation acceleration to enhance thermal management design
• Accountable for producing professional analysis summary reports. Trusted to work on multiple projects simultaneously

EXPERIENCE

• With BS: minimum 5 years industry experience in the application of thermal simulation and analysis for product development
• With MS 1+ years with, industry experience in the application of thermal simulation and analysis for product development
• Mechanical, Aerospace or Biomedical Engineering with relevant course work in Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
• Strong knowledge of heat transfer and fluid mechanics
• Expert user of Icepak, FloEFD, Ansys workbench, Design modeler, Spaceclaim, Star-CCM+ and Ansys Fluent
• Experience with Creo, Solid Works for CAD simplification
• Experience with thermal system testing
• Knowledge of AI/ML techniques
• Nice to have experience with Ansys Mechanical experience and thermal expansion simulations

What You’ll Bring to Alcon:

• Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent years of directly related experience (or high school +10 yrs; Assoc.+6 yrs; M.S.+0 yrs)
• The ability to fluently read, write, understand and communicate in English
• 2+ years of relevant experience

How You Can Thrive at Alcon:

• Join Alcon’s mission to provide outstanding, innovative products and solutions to improve sight, improve lives, and grow your career!
• Alcon provides robust benefits package including health, life, retirement, flexible time off, and much more!
• Travel Requirements: 5-10%
• Relocation assistance: Yes
• Sponsorship available: Limited

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