Senior Propulsion Engineer – CFD & AI Propeller Design

Michigan Wheel; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Michigan Wheel is seeking a Senior Propulsion Engineer in Grand Rapids, MI, to lead marine propeller design and propulsion systems from concept to production-ready geometry. You will build and mature CFD workflows, integrating AI-augmented simulation to advance propeller design capabilities.

The role emphasizes mentoring the advanced analysis team, correlating CFD with test data, and collaborating with manufacturing to ensure producibility in foundry and machining.>

Qualifications

• MS in Naval Architecture or Marine Engineering; Mechanical/Aerospace degrees considered with experience
• 5+ years designing propellers, propulsors, pumps, or turbomachinery
• Strong foundation in fluid dynamics, hydrodynamics, and applied numerical methods

Responsibilities

• Design marine propellers and stern gear from hydrodynamic concept through production-ready geometry, translating customer desires and vessel requirements into optimized blade designs.
• Develop and mature CFD workflows to analyze and improve performance, cavitation, efficiency, and wake behavior.
• Correlate analytical and CFD predictions against model-test and sea-trial data to validate and refine designs.
• Partner closely with manufacturing to ensure designs are producible within foundry and machining capabilities.
• Help build, mentor, and establish the methods and tooling of the advanced analysis team.
• Contribute to research, development, and continuous improvement across the propeller product line.

Skills

CFD experience

ML for CFD

CAD tools

Communication

Collaboration

Education

MS in Naval Architecture / Marine Engineering

Mechanical or Aerospace degree (considered)

Tools

STAR-CCM+

ANSYS Fluent/CFX

OpenFOAM

Job description

Michigan Wheel is seeking a Senior Propulsion Engineer in Grand Rapids, MI, to lead marine propeller design and propulsion systems from concept to production-ready geometry. You will build and mature CFD workflows, integrating AI-augmented simulation to advance propeller design capabilities.

The role emphasizes mentoring the advanced analysis team, correlating CFD with test data, and collaborating with manufacturing to ensure producibility in foundry and machining.>