Senior Thermofluids Engineer - Lead thermal hardware development for next-generation power systems
Hawthorne, California | On-site
Opportunity Summary
Join a well-capitalized seed-stage energy hardware company developing a new generation of compact, high-output power systems. The team is redesigning traditional power-generation architecture around advanced thermodynamic cycles, modern turbomachinery, and factory-built hardware that can be deployed significantly faster than conventional power infrastructure. As a Senior Thermofluids Engineer, you will own the thermal-fluid design of the heat-exchange hardware at the center of the system. You will drive architecture, 3D CFD analysis, CAD design, sizing, supplier execution, and hardware validation across high-pressure and high-temperature operating conditions. This is a hands-on role for an engineer who can move between analysis and detailed mechanical design, then carry that work into fabricated and tested hardware.
About Us
We are a recently funded seed-stage energy technology company building modular power-generation hardware for rapidly growing energy markets. Our approach combines advanced turbomachinery, compact heat-transfer systems, and scalable manufacturing to create power equipment with a smaller physical footprint and reduced infrastructure requirements. Hardware is already being assembled and tested, with the team moving quickly toward larger systems, customer deployments, and production.
Job Duties
- Own thermal-fluid design for the system's recuperation, primary heat-transfer, and heat-rejection hardware
- Lead 3D CFD analysis for flow distribution, heat transfer, pressure loss, thermal behavior, and conjugate heat-transfer problems
- Build and iterate detailed CAD models of heat exchangers, manifolds, headers, flow passages, and associated thermal hardware
- Translate CFD and thermal-analysis results directly into geometry and mechanical design changes
- Size heat exchangers using effectiveness, NTU, heat-transfer, and pressure-drop analysis
- Develop channel, core, header, and manifold geometries for efficient and uniform flow distribution
- Predict thermal and fluid performance across nominal, transient, and off-design operating conditions
- Build and maintain 1D thermal-hydraulic and network models to support component and system-level design decisions
- Balance thermal performance, pressure drop, packaging, structural constraints, manufacturability, and schedule
- Work closely with cycle, mechanical, structural, manufacturing, and test engineers to define interfaces and operating requirements
- Lead technical coordination with heat-exchanger suppliers and fabricators through design reviews, manufacturing, inspection, and acceptance
- Support hardware assembly, instrumentation, testing, troubleshooting, and model-to-test correlation
- Use test results to improve CFD models, design assumptions, and future hardware iterations
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree or higher in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field
- Strong foundation in heat transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics
- Significant hands-on experience using 3D CFD for thermal-fluid hardware design
- Experience with conjugate heat transfer, internal flows, pressure-drop prediction, and flow-distribution analysis
- Strong CAD experience with the ability to independently create and modify detailed mechanical hardware
- Experience using CAD and CFD together as part of an iterative design process
- Hands-on experience designing and sizing heat exchangers or other high-performance thermal-fluid hardware
- Experience calculating pressure drop, heat-transfer performance, effectiveness, and thermal operating limits
- Proficiency with 1D or network-based thermal-fluid modeling
- Track record of taking designs from analysis and CAD through fabrication and physical testing
- Ability to work effectively across simulation, detailed design, suppliers, manufacturing, and test
- Strong technical communication skills and comfort operating with significant engineering ownership
Preferred Experience
- Supercritical CO systems or other high-pressure, real-gas, or near-critical fluid applications
- Compact or high-effectiveness heat exchangers such as printed-circuit, microchannel, or plate-fin designs
- Advanced CFD workflows including conjugate heat transfer, meshing strategy, turbulence modeling, and model validation
- Parametric CAD, design optimization, and design-for-manufacturing experience
- High-temperature and high-pressure thermal systems
- Additively manufactured heat exchangers or complex internal flow hardware
- Air-cooled heat rejection or dry-cooling systems
- Combustion-side heat transfer, fired heaters, burners, or related equipment
- Pressure-containing hardware including thermal stress, creep, fatigue, and pressure-boundary design
- Heat-exchanger testing and model-to-test correlation
- ASME pressure vessel or heat-exchanger design standards
- Turbomachinery, propulsion, power generation, nuclear, industrial process, or advanced energy hardware
- Early-stage startup or rapid hardware-development experience
Why Join Us
- Join a well-capitalized seed-stage company at the point where first-of-kind hardware is moving into larger-scale systems and customer deployment
- Own a technically critical subsystem with direct influence on overall system efficiency, packaging, and performance
- Work across CFD, CAD, hardware design, manufacturing, and test rather than operating only as an analyst
- Work directly with the founding team and experienced engineers developing complex turbomachinery and power hardware
- Take hardware from analysis and detailed design through fabrication, testing, iteration, and eventual production
- Meaningful equity ownership
- Company-sponsored medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Fully stocked kitchen with snacks, coffee, and lunch
Compensation Details
$180,000 - $230,000
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