The effect of surface roughness on jet impingement heat transfer was investigated in this research. A numerical analysis was conducted for free surface slot jet impinging normally onto a heated plate. Six different geometries and three different plate materials were investigated. The cooling fluid used for the analysis was water, and the flow was laminar with a range of Reynolds number (Re) from 500 to 1000. Temperature distribution, local and average heat transfer coefficient, and local and average Nusselt number were presented for each case. The steady state heat transfer results show that the increase in Reynolds number (Re) increases the local heat transfer coefficient and the local Nusselt number. Impinging the jet nozzle directly onto a step has a better heat transfer enhancement than impinging the jet nozzle in between steps. Materials with low thermal conductivity exhibit large variation in temperature along the solid-fluid interface. The variations of the interface temperature become smaller between all cases when applying the isothermal boundary condition. The transient heat transfer results show that the temperature of the interface increases with time until steady state condition is met. Materials with high thermal diffusivity reach the steady state condition with less time. The increase in surface roughness increases the time required to reach the steady state condition. The highest rates of heat transfer were found at locations where no fluid recirculation occurs. It takes less time to reach steady state condition when applying the isothermal boundary condition at the bottom surface of the plate.