Senior Mechanical Engineer (Calcination - Modelling/FEA)

Rivan; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Significant share options

Private health insurance

Visa sponsorship available

Unlimited time-off

relocation support

Job summary

Rivan Industries in London is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to own a sub-system within the Direct Air Capture team, driving high‑temperature DAC hardware design, modelling and integration.

You will design from concept to build, develop in‑house thermal models (ANSYS/COMSOL), validate against data, and collaborate with fabrication and suppliers to iterate hardware. Requires 5+ years' experience and a SolidWorks expert.

Qualifications

• 5+ years professional mechanical engineering experience.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s in mechanical/aero or related field.
• Strong CAD: SolidWorks with top-down/layout‑driven assemblies.
• Experience thermal simulation using ANSYS or COMSOL.
• Ability to validate simulation against physical test or operational data.
• Experience defining and running long‑duration or accelerated test campaigns.
• Strong statistical analysis capability.

Responsibilities

• Own mechanical design from concept to commissioning.
• Develop in-house thermal models in bespoke high‑temperature equipment.
• Validate simulation results against experimental and operational data.
• Translate physical problems into simplified analytical or numerical models using hand calcs and FEA/CFD where necessary.
• Design and maintain assemblies in SolidWorks using robust top‑down/layout‑driven design practices.
• Design test rigs and experiments to validate assumptions, models and failure mechanisms rapidly.
• Support other DAC workstreams, prioritising modelling/design requests and setting realistic turnaround based on engineering value and capacity.
• Work directly with fabrication team and external suppliers to manufacture and iterate hardware.

Skills

SolidWorks

Thermal modelling

FEA/CFD

Data analysis

Cross‑team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in mechanical/aero or related field

Tools

ANSYS/COMSOL

Job description

Rivan Industries is a synthetic fuel company decarbonising heavy industry. We’re making synthetic fuel cheaper than fossil fuels, sustaining life on earth by keeping the CO2 locked underground.

Engineering at Rivan is about taking technologies that are conventionally treated as low volume, bespoke, and expensive, and rethinking them completely to be mass manufactured, standardised, and ultra low cost. Every design aspect must be re-reasoned from first principles, every part’s existence questioned, and every manufacturing step scrutinised.

We’re looking for a talented Senior Mechanical Engineer to own one of our sub-systems to drive that forward, tasked with uncovering new ways of thinking about our system integration, performance, longevity, and manufacturability. If you thrive on a lot of responsibility and tight deadlines, come and build!

The role

Design, simulate and deliver high-temperature DAC hardware.

This role sits within our Direct Air Capture team, working across high-temperature mechanical systems including calcination, solids handling and associated thermal equipment. You’ll combine mechanical design with thermal modelling to understand system behaviour, make design decisions and then turn those decisions into buildable hardware. We need you to:

• Own mechanical design from concept through detailed design, manufacture, assembly and commissioning
• Develop in-house thermal models in bespoke high-temperature equipment
• Validate simulation results against experimental and operational data to drive design decisions
• Translate physical problems into simplified analytical or numerical models using a mix of hand calcs and FEA/CFD where necessary
• Design and maintain assemblies in SolidWorks using robust top‑down/layout‑driven design practices
• Design test rigs and experiments to validate assumptions, models and failure mechanisms rapidly
• Support other DAC workstreams, prioritising modelling/design requests and setting realistic turnaround based on engineering value and available capacity
• Work directly with our internal fabrication team and external suppliers to manufacture and iterate hardware

Core skills

• 5+ years professional mechanical engineering experience
• Bachelor’s or Master’s in mechanical/aero or related field
• System design experience including CAD (SolidWorks), , including top‑down/layout‑driven assemblies, detailed drawings and design for manufacture/assembly
• Strong thermal simulation capability using ANSYS, COMSOL or equivalent, covering conduction, convection and radiation
• Demonstrated experience validating simulation models against physical test or operational data
• Able to translate physical problems into appropriately simplified models and judge when hand calculations, reduced‑order models or full FEA/CFD are appropriate
• Strong mechanical design capability in SOLIDWORKS; able to take modelling conclusions through into physical hardware
• Experience defining and running long‑duration or accelerated test campaigns
• Strong statistical analysis capability, able to draw defensible conclusions from limited test data
• Comfortable acting as a shared technical resource across multiple workstreams, prioritising requests and pushing back where required

Specifics

• £70-90k Salary depending on experience
• Significant share options as part of the early team
• In-person work at our HQ in Bermondsey, South-East London
• Extensive relocation support, including £6000 per year extra to live close to our HQ
• Private health insurance
• Visa sponsorship available
• Unlimited time-off

We encourage exceptional applicants from all backgrounds to apply for this role, even if they do not meet all the requirements listed.