Senior Structural Engineer

Talus Renewables; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Talus is seeking a Senior Structural Engineer to lead the structural design of modular green ammonia skid plants. You will own the skid frame, foundations, pipe racks, and connections, coordinating with piping and rotating equipment engineers. Fully remote with global collaboration across time zones.

You will verify external designs, develop constructible details, and ensure compliance with ASCE 7, AISC, and ACI standards. Strong English and field-ready experience are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Civil or Structural Engineering.
• 10+ years designing structural steel for industrial plants (chemical, petrochemical, refinery, power).
• Experience designing skids, modular structures, or pipe racks to issued-for-construction drawings.
• Proficiency with ASCE 7, AISC 360/341, and ACI 318 including anchorage design.
• Ability to read geotechnical reports and interface with geotechnical consultants.
• Ability to review external designs and write clear, clause-based findings.
• Strong written English and collaboration across time zones.

Responsibilities

• Skid structural design for process skids, frames, bracing, and supports to IFC drawings.
• Establish load basis per ASCE 7 and identify governing cases.
• Coordinate with pipe stress engineer; iterate loads and stiffness for feasible designs.
• Design bolted and welded connections using IDEA StatiCa or RAM Connection.
• Design foundations, pile caps, anchorage per ACI 318; address bearing and settlement questions.
• Review outside designs and document findings with applicable clauses.
• Plan transport, lifting points, and structural interfaces for field assembly.
• Develop standard connection details and ensure constructability with fabricators.

Skills

Staad.Pro

ASCE 7 knowledge

AISC 360/341 knowledge

ACI 318 knowledge

English proficiency

Education

B.S. in Civil/Structural Engineering

Professional Engineer licence

Tools

IDEA StatiCa

RAM Connection

Tekla

SDS2

Job description

About Talus

Talus' mission is to realize humanity's sustainable future by improving access to food and fuel for all. We achieve this by producing green ammonia -- the fundamental component of all synthetic fertilizers -- using renewable electricity, water, and air.

We're building a distributed network of modular green ammonia systems globally, offering reliable, carbon-free ammonia to our partners at a fraction of the current market price. Our first system is operational in Kenya, and we aim to expand our platform to enhance access to locally produced renewable energy and alternative fuels worldwide.

Senior Structural Engineer

Talus is building the next generation of its modular green ammonia plant on a skid-mounted architecture. In place of containers, the plant is built from six or seven open skids of roughly 16 ft wide by 13 ft tall by 40 to 45 ft long, each carrying its process equipment and piping, with only the interface spools made up in the field. This role owns the structural design of those skids, their pipe racks and their foundations.

You will work alongside the piping engineer and the rotating equipment engineer, and report to the engineering lead for the next-generation plant. Part of the structural work is produced by outside consultants; you will design what we keep in-house and verify what we do not. This role is fully remote and open to candidates anywhere with strong English.

Key Responsibilities

• Skid structural design: Design the primary and secondary steel for the process skids — frame, deck, bracing, equipment supports and lifting arrangement — sized for the in-service, transport and lift conditions, and taken through to IFC drawings.

• Design load basis: Establish the load basis to ASCE 7 — wind, seismic, snow, live, equipment operating and upset loads — and the combinations that govern each member. State which case governs and why, so the basis survives a change in site.

• Piping interface: Work directly with the pipe stress engineer. Take support and anchor loads, apply them at the correct node on the steel, feed back the support stiffness and deflection limits the structure can actually deliver, and iterate until both the stress analysis and the steel close. Where a support location is not structurally sensible, say so and propose the alternative.

• Connection design: Design bolted and welded connections in IDEA StatiCa or RAM Connection. Issue connection design rather than delegating it to the fabricator wherever the load path is not routine.

• Foundations and geotechnical interface: Design foundations, pile caps, anchorage and embedments to ACI 318. Read the geotechnical report, know which parameters change your design, and close out bearing, settlement and site class questions with the geotechnical consultant.

• Verification of outside design: Check structural design produced by external engineering firms — model, loads, combinations, member and connection checks. Write findings that state what is wrong, where it is, and which clause governs.

• Transport and lifting: Design for the road and the crane as well as for service. Transport dynamic load cases, lift points and spreader arrangements, jacking and shipping restraints, and the deflection limits that keep installed piping from being overstressed in transit.

• Pipe racks and access steel: Design the interconnecting pipe racks, platforms, stairs, ladders and handrail, with maintenance and removal access settled during design rather than after.

• Standard details: Turn what each skid proves into standard connection types, member families and details, so the seventh skid starts from what the first one settled.

• Constructability: Settle field-bolted interfaces, erection tolerances and fit-up requirements with the fabricator before the drawings are issued.

Required Qualifications

We expect most of the below. If you do not have all of it, we still encourage you to reach out.

• Strong commitment to the Talus mission and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven startup environment.

• Bachelor's degree in Civil or Structural Engineering, or equivalent.

• 10 or more years designing structural steel for industrial plant — chemical, petrochemical, refinery, power, or similar. Most of it in the structural division of an EPC, or in an equivalent hands-on design organisation.

• You have designed skids, modular structures, equipment support structures or pipe racks yourself and taken them through to issued-for-construction drawings. Checking other people's work is not a substitute for this.

• Working command of ASCE 7, AISC 360 and AISC 341, and ACI 318, including anchorage design to ACI 318 Chapter 17, and the judgment to say which provision governs a given condition and why.

• STAAD. Pro at a level where you build, load, run and interpret the model yourself, and can explain any result in it.

• Connection design in IDEA StatiCa or RAM Connection.

• You have worked directly with pipe stress engineers, taken their support loads onto your steel, and run the iteration between the two disciplines to closure.

• You have worked with geotechnical consultants and can read a geotechnical report for the parameters that drive foundation design.

• You can review another engineer's calculation critically and write the finding so the reader knows what is wrong, where, and under which clause.

• Able to make sound engineering decisions with incomplete information and adjust as the design develops.

• Clear written English, and the ability to work effectively across time zones with the piping, process and rotating equipment engineers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Green ammonia, hydrogen, air separation, LNG or cryogenic plant experience.

• Shop-fabricated modular or skid-mounted plant, where footprint, shipping envelope and removal access are hard constraints.

• Transport and heavy-lift engineering: road transport dynamic load cases, over-dimensional and superload route constraints, lift and rigging design, and lifting lug or padeye design to ASME BTH-1.

• Eurocode design to EN 1993 and EN 1998, and structures supplied into Europe under CE marking.

• AISC 341 seismic detailing in a high seismic region.

• Dynamic or vibration analysis of structures supporting reciprocating compressors or other unbalanced rotating equipment.

• Reviewing vendor and packager structural scope on supplied equipment skids.

• Reading pipe stress output such as CAESAR II directly, rather than through a summary.

• 3D structural modelling handed off to fabricator detailing — Tekla, SDS2 or equivalent.

• Professional Engineer licence or equivalent national registration.

Job Working Conditions

• Fully remote, open to candidates in any location with strong written and spoken English.

• 10 to 20 percent travel, including international travel to fabrication shops, project sites and consultant offices.