Lead Engineer - Prototype Build

American Turbines; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous stock package

Medical, vision, and dental care

2% matching on 401(k)

Job summary

American Turbines seeks a Lead Engineer to own the schedule for delivering the first turbine, from current state to a tested demonstrator. You will turn multiple workstreams—combustion, aerodynamics, mechanical, controls, and power electronics—into a single, executable plan and be accountable for its success.

You will lead engineers, run regular meetings, and step in where the build needs hands-on input—debugging test rigs, validating designs, and ensuring tasks are completed on time.

Qualifications

• Track record of taking hardware from 0 to 1 and shipping it.
• Ability to lead engineers more senior or specialized than you.
• Preference for build-and-test over simulation and ability to handle schedule slips.

Responsibilities

• Own the project timeline from current status to demonstrator.
• Set the schedule, break it into tasks, and delegate to engineers.
• Lead daily/weekly engineering meetings and track progress against promises.
• Step in to support testing, fixture work, or design reviews as needed.
• Be present in the shop and earn team respect through hands-on leadership.

Skills

Timeline ownership

Hardware development

Team leadership

Schedule discipline

Hands-on

Job description

About American Turbines

The power grid was built for a world that no longer exists. Centralized generation, hundred-mile transmission lines, decade-long permitting cycles. Meanwhile, demand is exploding: AI data centers, industrial electrification, remote operations that need megawatts yesterday and can't wait for utilities to catch up.

American Turbines is designing small modular gas turbines, purpose-built for distributed power generation. Machines designed from a blank sheet to be manufactured at scale, clustered in arrays. Hundreds of units operating in parallel, dynamically matching load like a compute cluster matches demand. We are a seed-stage company backed by the investors behind SpaceX, Boom Supersonic, and Hadrian.

About the Role

The Lead Engineer will own the timeline for American Turbines' first turbine, from where it stands today through a fully built and tested demonstrator. You will turn a stack of engineering workstreams, combustion, aerodynamics, mechanical, controls, power electronics, into a single execution plan, and you will be the one accountable for whether that plan holds.

You will set the schedule, break it into tasks, and delegate those tasks to the engineers who own them. You will run daily and weekly engineering meetings, track what's actually getting done against what was promised, and step in wherever the build needs another set of hands: fixturing a part, running a test, chasing a vendor. Beyond keeping the schedule honest, you'll pick up engineering work directly when the team needs it, whether that's helping debug a test rig issue, sanity-checking a design call, or just taking a task yourself when someone's stuck.

This is not a role where you set a plan on a whiteboard and let the team execute it on their own. You will be in the shop as often as you're in a planning meeting, and the team's respect for your leadership will come from both.

What We're Looking For

A track record of taking hardware from 0 to 1 and shipping it, ideally at a small, fast-moving hardware team. You don't need direct turbomachinery experience. What you need is the judgment to build a realistic timeline, the discipline to hold a team to it, and the willingness to get your hands dirty when the schedule calls for it.

You've led engineers more senior or more specialized than you before, and you know how to earn their trust rather than assume it. You default to build-and-test over simulation, and you know the difference between a schedule slip that’s normal and one that’s a real problem.

You're effective at quick check-ins, not just deep dives. You won't have time to go deep on every workstream, so you need to know when a two-minute conversation is enough to unblock someone and when a problem actually needs you to sit down and work it with them.

Compensation

$200,000 to $250,000 base.

Generous stock package.

Medical, vision, and dental care.

2% matching on 401(k).