Director of Turbomachinery

Key Responsibilities

• Set Technical Direction: Define the aero-thermal design philosophy and architecture for turbines and pumps across all power generation cycles, making final calls on design tradeoffs at the system level.
• Lead the Team: Hire, develop, and manage a team of turbomachinery engineers. Foster a culture of rigorous first-principles engineering paired with a strong bias toward hardware.
• Own the Program: Drive turbomachinery development from early-stage sizing and trade studies through detailed design, validation, and subsea deployment — holding accountability for schedule, performance, and reliability.
• Design Through Test: Personally lead critical design work — from 1D sizing and CFD analysis to mechanical integration of rotors, housings, bearings, and seals — and see it through to hardware assembly and test validation.
• Govern Simulation and Analysis: Set standards for 3D CFD and structural FEA across the team, ensuring analytical rigor and model correlation with experimental data.
• Define the Test Strategy: Own the overall validation approach for rotating equipment, from bench-level component tests through full system operation. Ensure failure modes are identified and resolved before deployment.
• Drive Cross-Functional Integration: Partner with systems, thermal, mechanical, and operations teams to ensure turbomachinery fits within the broader power plant architecture and field constraints.
• Build for Scale: Establish the internal tools, design standards, and documentation frameworks that allow the turbomachinery function — and the product line — to grow.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering or similar field (Master’s or PhD preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in the design, analysis, and testing of high speed rotating machinery (pumps, compressors, or turbines).
• Strong fundamentals in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer.
• Experience with CAD software (e.g., Siemens NX) and rapid prototyping.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, "scrappy" startup environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with turbomachinery design tools such as AxStream, CFTurbo etc.
• Proficiency in CFD and numerical simulation tools (e.g., ANSYS CFX/Fluent, OpenFOAM, or Numeca).
• Experience with supercritical CO2 or organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbomachinery.
• Knowledge of high-pressure seal design and rotor dynamics.
• Hands-on experience setting up and operating high-speed rotating equipment test rigs.
• Programming skills (Python, MATLAB, or C++) for automated design optimization and data analysis.