Senior/Principal Turbomachinery Engineer

About the role

You will own the complete lifecycle of high-performance turbomachinery design for modular subsea geothermal power plants, translating deep-ocean thermal resource constraints into robust rotor and stage designs. This role demands a rare blend of first principles turbomachinery physics and hands-on hardware intuition, where analytical insight directly guides fabrication and testing. You will shepherd components from initial 1D sizing and trade space exploration through detailed 3D CFD and structural FEA, ultimately validating performance in demanding subsea environments. Your work will directly enable rapid iteration cycles, integrating rotors, housings, bearings, and seals into field-ready assemblies that survive corrosive seawater and extreme pressure. You will establish internal modeling standards and design documentation, creating the tools that allow the team to scale efficiently without sacrificing rigor. Through test campaign leadership, you will correlate simulation with experimental data, identify failure modes, and refine designs to meet aggressive reliability targets. Your decisions will shape the efficiency, compactness, and manufacturability of the core power conversion hardware that defines Endurance's modular subsea platforms. By aligning your technical depth with the mission of unlocking vast geothermal resources under the ocean, you will play a pivotal role in delivering gigawatts of clean, baseload power.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead aero-thermal design and optimization of turbines and pumps tailored to compact supercritical CO2 and organic Rankine cycles for seafloor power generation.
• Perform rapid sizing and trade studies using 1D and 2D turbomachinery tools to evaluate conceptual options and guide system integration decisions.
• Conduct high-fidelity 3D computational fluid dynamics and structural finite element analysis to predict component performance, stresses, and durability.
• Design, execute, and analyze test campaigns on high-speed rotating hardware to validate performance, correlate models, and uncover failure mechanisms.
• Drive mechanical integration of rotating assemblies, housings, bearings, and seals into robust, manufacturable, and field-deployable modules.
• Establish internal modeling workflows, design standards, and technical documentation to scale turbomachinery development across multiple platforms.
• Collaborate closely with ocean engineering, controls, and manufacturing teams to align turbomachinery performance with deployment constraints and operational scenarios.
• Mentor junior engineers by providing technical direction, code reviews, and hands-on guidance in advanced simulation and testing methods.
• Translate evolving customer and system requirements into specific turbomachinery performance targets and verification criteria.
• Champion a culture of rigorous first-principles reasoning, data-driven decisions, and scrappy experimentation in a fast-paced startup environment.

Requirements

• Hold a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, with a Master's or PhD strongly preferred.
• Bring 3 or more years of hands-on experience designing, analyzing, and testing high-speed rotating machinery such as pumps, compressors, or turbines.
• Demonstrate deep fundamentals in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer as they apply to turbomachinery performance.
• Show proven ability using CAD software, specifically Siemens NX, to develop detailed 3D models and production-ready drawings.
• Exhibit comfort working in a fast-paced, resource-constrained startup environment where scrappy problem-solving is essential.
• Apply first-principles thinking to break down complex turbomachinery challenges and develop practical, testable solutions.
• Communicate technical results clearly through detailed reports, models, and cross-functional discussions with engineering and operations teams.
• Adhere to rigorous documentation standards, ensuring that designs, assumptions, and test data are traceable and reproducible.

Nice to have

• Experience with dedicated turbomachinery design tools such as AxStream or CFTurbo for meanline and 3D inverse design.
• Proficiency in CFD and numerical simulation platforms including ANSYS CFX, Fluent, OpenFOAM, or Numeca for high-Reynolds-flow analysis.
• Prior work on supercritical CO2 or organic Rankine cycle turbomachinery, including knowledge of high-pressure seal design and rotor dynamics.
• Hands-on experience setting up, instrumenting, and operating high-speed rotating equipment test rigs in a laboratory or field setting.
• Programming skills in Python, MATLAB, or C++ to enable automated design optimization, data analysis, and custom simulation workflows.
• Familiarity with subsea energy systems, oceanographic deployment constraints, and the unique challenges of deep-water environments.
• Exposure to advanced manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing, and rapid prototyping techniques for complex turbomachinery components.
• Understanding of certification, safety, and reliability standards relevant to marine energy and long-duration offshore hardware.

Practical notes

• Available hours: Full-time (40 hours per week).
• Travel: International travel to oceanic deployment sites such as the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, and the Azores may be required.
• Visa: Sponsorship may be considered for qualified candidates depending on location and role requirements.
• Deadline: Applications should be submitted promptly as roles fill on a rolling basis.