Senior Thermal Systems Engineer

Standard Thermal; Woodinville (WA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Standard Thermal is developing the world’s lowest-cost thermal energy storage technology, using dirt as a thermal battery. We deliver a year-round steady supply of thermal energy to industrial customers by buffering solar PV energy through a large thermal battery.

You will join a small, fast-moving team with significant responsibility for the systems we deploy, with opportunities to impact large-scale installations through software, experiments, and field work.

Qualifications

• M.S. or PhD in mechanical engineering, applied physics, chemical engineering, or equivalent.
• Exceptional command of thermal and fluid dynamics.
• Strong experience with COMSOL or similar FEM simulations.
• Experience applying numerical methods to fast-paced product development.
• Comfortable working hands-on in lab and outdoor field environments.

Responsibilities

• Own deep technical problems: investigate physical phenomena, develop models and experiments to inform decisions.
• Model system-level behavior: extend analytical methods and numerical models for architecture and strategies.
• Model and validate coupled physics: develop/validate COMSOL or other numerical models; compare with data and translate to design decisions.
• Accelerate the engineering team by collaborating with design/test engineers to resolve questions through analysis.
• Design, build, run, and interpret experiments to validate numerical or analytical results.
• Support customer designs and field deployments using location-specific solar profiles and energy usage data.

Skills

Thermal-fluid dynamics

Numerical modeling

COMSOL

CFD

Experiment design

Lab and field testing

Ownership

Education

M.S. or PhD in mechanical engineering / applied physics / chemical engineering

Tools

COMSOL

Job description

Standard Thermal is developing and deploying the world's lowest-cost thermal energy storage technology, using dirt as a thermal battery. We deliver a year-round steady supply of thermal energy to industrial consumers by buffering solar PV energy through a large thermal battery. To do this, we are building and field-testing thermal systems that combine mechanical hardware, heat transfer, electrical power, instrumentation, controls, and standard heavy construction methods.

You will be a load-bearing member of a small, fast-moving team, with significant responsibility for the systems that we deploy. Systems you develop will ultimately be deployed at enormous scale, presenting a unique opportunity for individual contributions to have outsized impact.

What you will do

• Own deep technical problems: Investigate difficult or poorly characterized physical phenomena that materially affect system performance. Develop the governing physical understanding, analytical and/or numerical models, and experiments needed to turn uncertainty into engineering decisions.
• Model system-level behavior: Develop and extend analytical methods and numerical models to evaluate system architecture, operating strategies, and long-duration transient behavior.
• Model and validate coupled physics: Develop, extend, and validate COMSOL or other numerical models for coupled thermal-fluid systems. Compare predictions against laboratory and field data and translate results into design decisions.
• Accelerate the engineering team: Partner closely with design and test engineers to resolve difficult technical questions through analysis and modeling, translating complex physics into faster engineering progress.
• Design and run experiments: Design, build, run, and interpret data from experiments to validate critical numerical or analytical results.
• Support customer designs and field deployments: Develop numerical and analytical models for customer designs, using location-specific solar profiles along with customer-specific energy usage profiles to model multi-year transient thermal performance.

What we are looking for

• M.S. or PhD in mechanical engineering, applied physics, chemical engineering, or another relevant physical sciences field, or equivalent background and experience.
• Exceptional command of thermal and fluid dynamics, including heat transfer, fluid flow, and coupled heat/mass transport.
• Strong numerical modeling capability: Experience with COMSOL or similar finite element method simulations, with preferred experience in transient thermodynamics calculations and CFD models.
• Experience applying numerical and analytical methods to practical, fast-paced product development and deployment decisions. Experience with deployment in large industrial environments is a plus.
• Strong mechanical intuition and background, and evidence that you enjoy connecting analysis to physical hardware.
• Low ego, high ownership. Comfortable rapidly changing paths when evidence and test results indicate.
• Comfortable working hands-on in both lab and outdoor field environments, and getting dirty when the job requires.

Details: Competitive salary, equity, and benefits.