Turbomachinery Engineer

About the role

You will own the complete lifecycle of turbomachinery design, analysis, manufacturing, build, testing, and validation for next-generation rocket engines at Stoke Space. This role demands extreme ownership where you will seek out and apply state-of-the-art design and manufacturing techniques to solve the most challenging turbomachinery problems the industry faces. You will iterate and improve designs continuously, focusing on performance, reliability, and cost reduction for engines built for daily flight. The position requires you to move fast, self-direct your work, and learn rapidly while maintaining intense focus on demanding technical problems. You will be part of a mission-driven, collaborative team empowered to take ownership of their work and contribute directly to enabling a thriving space economy.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design, build, and test turbopumps for liquid rocket engines to validate performance and reliability under demanding conditions.
• Own turbomachinery design (CAD), drawings, and manufacturing plans ensuring alignment with engineering requirements and production constraints.
• Perform hydrodynamic and aerodynamic sizing and flowpath design and analysis work for inducers, impellers, diffusers, nozzles, turbines, and other critical turbomachinery components.
• Perform hydrostatic bearing sizing, performance trending, and coatings development for turbopump bearings to optimize life and reliability.
• Evaluate axial thrust balance during transients and steady-state operating points to ensure stable and efficient operation across the entire flight envelope.
• Perform tolerance stackups, own build books, and ensure as-built pumps meet design intent through rigorous verification and validation processes.
• Own test verification activities to ensure accomplished tests meet all requirements and objectives without compromise.
• Support turbopump testing, data review, inspections, and go/no-go decisions to enable safe and efficient test campaigns.
• Own performance trending of various components such as inducers, impellers, turbines, axial, and radial bearing capacities, and cavitation characteristics to inform design improvements.
• Own design improvement plans for turbopump components including manufacturing improvements aimed at reducing cost and lead time while maintaining quality.
• Use and develop high-speed data tools to review turbopump vibration and rotor-dynamics performance for proactive issue identification.
• Resolve hardware build non-conformances through systematic analysis and resolution to keep project momentum.
• Conduct fault tree investigations and root cause analysis to prevent recurrence and drive continuous improvement.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to integrate turbomachinery solutions within the broader engine and vehicle systems.
• Document all design decisions, analyses, and test results to maintain a clear and traceable engineering record.
• Champion best practices in design for manufacturing to streamline production and enable rapid reusability goals.
• Apply creativity and technical depth to solve ambiguous problems where data may be limited and timelines are aggressive.
• Communicate findings and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders through reports and presentations.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience as an RE who takes extreme ownership of their product from concept through flight.
• Demonstrated ability to manage numerous hardware workflows to meet required delivery dates in a fast-paced environment.
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering, or a similar technical field.
• 4+ years of experience in design, build, and testing of rocket engine turbopumps or related turbomachinery experience.
• Understanding of hydrodynamic and aerodynamic design and fundamentals of turbomachinery in depth.
• Extensive experience using CAD tools and configuration management, with Siemens NX and Teamcenter preferred.
• Experience with mechanical design including machined parts, additive parts, weldments, fasteners, seals, and rotating assemblies.
• Experience in rocket engine turbomachinery axial and radial tolerance stackups, and material selection for demanding applications.
• Experience in the design, build, and testing of inducers, impellers, volutes, turbines, nozzles, shafts, bearings, and seals.
• Experience with secondary flow and axial thrust balance modeling to predict and manage performance.
• Proficiency in heat transfer, compressible and incompressible flow, and cryogenics relevant to rocket systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to interface effectively with diverse teams.
• Willing to relocate to Seattle, Washington to join the team and contribute on-site.

Practical notes

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Location: Kent, Washington

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Engagement: Full-time

• Willing to relocate to Seattle, WA
• The role involves significant hands-on work with hardware, testing, and rapid iteration.
• Ownership of design, analysis, and test verification is central to success in this position.
• The position supports the development of fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicles designed for daily flight.