Thermal Design Engineer II / Senior Thermal Design Engineer

Nitricity; San Francisco (CA); Vor Ort; USD 110.000 - 150.000; Vollzeit

Benefits dieser Stelle

Medical and dental insurance

401k with matching

Parental leave

3 weeks vacation (accruing)

Zusammenfassung

Nitricity Inc. is seeking a Thermal Design Engineer II / Senior Thermal Design Engineer to lead CFD for high-temperature air flows in plasma reactors.

You will couple detailed chemical kinetics with flow solvers to guide reactor, quench, and heat-recovery design, and collaborate across engineering disciplines to scale models to megawatt-scale plants. The role involves validating simulations with experimental data, developing kinetic mechanisms, and establishing best practices in a fast-moving

Qualifikationen

• 2+ years of relevant experience in CFD of high-temperature gas flows.
• Hands-on experience running reacting-flow CFD simulations with commercial/open-source tools.
• Strong grounding in turbulence modeling, radiation, and heat transfer.
• Experience coupling chemical kinetics to flow simulations.
• Proficiency with 3D CAD and mesh preparation for simulation.
• Knowledge of GD&T, materials selection, and high-temperature design.
• Experience validating simulations against experimental data.

Aufgaben

• Build, run, and validate CFD models of high-temperature air flows in plasma reactors.
• Couple detailed/reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms to flow solvers to predict NO formation and fixation yield.
• Use results to design reactors, quench sections, and heat recovery equipment.
• Develop/extend kinetic mechanisms and perform sensitivity analyses.
• Collaborate with experimental team for diagnostics and model validation.
• Perform conjugate heat transfer and thermal-stress assessments for hot components.
• Translate CFD/kinetics results into specifications and docs for leadership.
• Establish simulation best practices and version control.
• Work with external firms and scale models from lab to megawatt-scale plants.

Kenntnisse

CFD simulations

Turbulence modeling

Heat transfer

Chemical kinetics

Python scripting

CAD basics

GD&T

High-temperature gas flows

Ausbildung

BS in Mechanical, Chemical, or Aerospace Engineering

MS with focus on fluid mechanics/heat transfer/combustion

Tools

ANSYS Fluent

STAR-CCM+

CONVERGE

OpenFOAM

Cantera

CHEMKIN

SolidWorks

Onshape

Jobbeschreibung

Thermal Design Engineer II / Senior Thermal Design Engineer

Company Overview

Nitricity is a startup addressing climate change, and we are looking for your help! We are innovating in an essential chemical industry that supports global food systems. The bedrock of modern agriculture is the production, distribution, and application of the essential nutrients found in fertilizers. However, nitrogen fertilizer is currently made in coal- and gas-fired facilities located hundreds to thousands of miles away from the farmers who need it. The $120B industry is responsible for as much as 6% of global CO2eq emissions. Nitricity Inc. has developed a new technology that produces fertilizer using air, water, and renewable electricity (e.g., solar). Growers will have access to a more reliable, low cost, and environmentally friendly fertilizer supply. We are actively growing our team to help us turn this vision into a reality.

Position Description

The Thermal Design Engineer, CFD will be part of Nitricity’s core product engineering team developing megawatt-scale chemical production facilities. Our process converts air into fixed nitrogen in a plasma, producing gas streams at thousands of degrees that must be cooled quickly enough to preserve the nitric oxide we create while recovering as much high-grade heat as possible. Getting this right is central to the efficiency and cost of our product.

In this role, you will be our lead for computational fluid dynamics of high-temperature, chemically reacting air. You will build CFD models that couple fluid flow, heat transfer, and detailed chemical kinetics, and use them to guide the design of our reactors, quench systems, and heat recovery equipment. You will work closely with experts in chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering and with our test team to validate models against pilot and laboratory data. This position reports to Nitricity’s Chief Science Officer.

Responsibilities

• Build, run, and validate CFD models of high-temperature air flows (up to several thousand K) exiting Nitricity’s plasma reactors, including turbulent reacting flow, quench, and heat transfer.
• Couple detailed and reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms for N2/O2/NOx chemistry to flow solvers to predict NO formation, NO decomposition during cooling, and overall fixation yield.
• Use simulation results to drive the design of reactors, quench sections, and heat recovery equipment that capture high-grade heat while preserving product.
• Develop and reduce kinetic mechanisms as needed, and perform sensitivity and reaction pathway analysis to identify the steps that control yield and energy efficiency.
• Partner with the experimental team to plan diagnostics and test campaigns (temperature, species, and pressure measurements) that validate and calibrate models.
• Conduct conjugate heat transfer, thermal stress, and materials temperature assessments for components exposed to high-temperature, oxidizing gas.
• Translate CFD and kinetics results into design recommendations, technical specifications and clear documentation for engineering and leadership.
• Establish simulation best practices at Nitricity, including meshing standards, solver settings, verification and validation workflows, and model version control.
• Work with outside engineering firms and software vendors, and help scale models from laboratory and pilot systems to megawatt-scale commercial plants.

Required Qualifications

• BS in Mechanical, Chemical, or Aerospace Engineering or a related field with 2+ years of relevant experience, or MS, with a focus on fluid mechanics, heat transfer, combustion, or reacting flows.
• Hands-on experience running reacting-flow CFD simulations of high-temperature gas flows using a commercial or open-source package (ANSYS Fluent, STAR-CCM+, CONVERGE, OpenFOAM, or similar).
• Strong grounding in turbulence modeling, turbulence-chemistry interaction, radiation, and heat transfer.
• Working knowledge of chemical kinetics and experience coupling finite-rate chemistry to flow simulations, using tools such as Cantera, CHEMKIN, or equivalent.
• Proficiency with 3D CAD (SolidWorks, Onshape, or similar), including parts, assemblies and engineering drawings, and preparing geometry and meshes for simulation.
• Working knowledge of GD&T, materials selection, and design for manufacturing for components operating at high temperature.
• Experience validating simulations against experimental data and communicating uncertainty clearly.
• Scripting skills in Python or similar for pre/post-processing, automation and parametric studies.
• Work well in focused teams with multiple disciplines and thrive in a fast-moving start-up environment.
• Enthusiasm for high-impact, hard tech solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency with ANSYS simulation tools (Fluent, CFX, Chemkin-Pro, and/or Mechanical).
• Experience with AI-enabled modeling and simulation workflows, such as machine learning surrogate models, reduced-order models, AI-assisted design optimization, or automated parametric studies.
• Experience with high-temperature air chemistry, NOx formation and destruction (Zeldovich and related mechanisms), plasma-assisted chemistry, or non-equilibrium flows.
• Experience with rapid quench, gas-phase reactor design, or hypersonic and arc-heated flows.
• Experience with mechanism reduction, chemical reactor network modeling, or 0D/1D reactor models alongside full CFD.
• Background designing heat exchangers or heat recovery equipment for industrial processes.
• Familiarity with HPC environments and cloud-based simulation workflows.

Compensation and Benefits*

• Annual Base Salary $110,000/yr - $150,000/yr
• 3 weeks of paid vacation (accruing)
• Medical and dental insurance
• 401k plan with matching
• Parental leave

*Benefits are subject to change over time and may require employment in CA to be eligible.

Nitricity Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, religion, marital status, registered domestic partner status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, genetic information, sexual orientation, military and veteran status or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws. It also prohibits unlawful discrimination based on the perception that anyone has any of those characteristics, or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of those characteristics.

This role is based at our Fremont HQ and requires onsite 5 days a week. Does that work for you?

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Nitricity’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A \"disabled veteran\" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A \"recently separated veteran\" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service.

An \"active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran\" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An \"Armed forces service medal veteran\" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.