Turbomachinery Structures Lead

American Supercritical; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity ownership

Medical insurance (employee)

Dental and vision coverage

401(k) retirement plan

Unlimited PTO

Parental leave

Hardware ownership

Job summary

American Supercritical is developing next-generation supercritical CO2 turbomachinery for efficient energy conversion in data centers and industrial processes. The Turbomachinery Structures Lead owns structural integrity from architecture to test, making decisions on stress, fatigue, thermal growth, and containment.

You will collaborate with aero, rotordynamics, materials, manufacturing, and test engineers to translate demanding operating conditions into robust hardware, drawing release, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of structural design/analysis on rotating machinery or similarly demanding hardware.
• Strong fundamentals in mechanics of materials, fatigue, fracture, contact, thermal stress, and high-speed rotating structures.

Responsibilities

• Own structural design and analysis for rotating and stationary turbomachinery components.
• Perform linear and nonlinear FEA for stress, deformation, contact, thermal loading, and failure modes.
• Lead life and durability assessments including fatigue, creep, overspeed, and containment.

Skills

Finite-element analysis

Rotating machinery

Mechanical design

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Education

Bachelor's in Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering

Master's or PhD preferred

Tools

ANSYS Mechanical

Abaqus

Job description

About American Supercritical

American Supercritical is making heat to valuable to waste. We are building a new generation of power plants for a world that desperately needs electricity. We’re developing supercritical CO2 turbomachinery that can turn today’s gas turbines into dramatically more efficient combined-cycle systems initially for the fast-growing data center market. These same systems can also transform how SMRs, geothermal plants, concentrated solar plants, thermal batteries, and industrial processes convert heat to electricity.

We’re a team of energy, aerospace, and power-generation veterans building real machines to solve hard problems in energy. We’re looking for exceptional engineers who want broad ownership, fast iteration cycles, and the opportunity to help define both the product and the company.

Role Overview

The Turbomachinery Structures Lead owns the structural integrity of our rotating and stationary hardware from early architecture through analysis, drawing release, manufacturing, and test. You will make the decisions around stress, fatigue, thermal growth, stiffness, overspeed, containment, and durability that determine whether the machine survives.

You’ll work closely with aerodynamic, rotordynamic, materials, manufacturing, and test engineers to translate demanding operating conditions into robust hardware and clear mechanical margins. This is a hands-on ownership role spanning models, drawings, supplier decisions, hardware disposition, and test correlation.

Responsibilities

• Own structural design and analysis for critical rotating and stationary turbomachinery components.

• Perform linear and nonlinear FEA for stress, deformation, contact, thermal-mechanical loading, and relevant failure modes.

• Own life and durability assessments including low-cycle fatigue, high-cycle fatigue, creep where applicable, overspeed, rotor burst, and containment.

• Design and analyze shafts, wheels, disks, housings, bearing supports, joints, fits, and other highly loaded hardware in coordination with rotordynamics and thermal design.

• Define material, heat-treatment, inspection, and structural acceptance requirements with manufacturing teams and suppliers, and support drawing release and nonconformance disposition.

• Instrument and validate structural behavior during component and integrated testing, correlate models to test data, and build reusable structural design methods for future machines.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• 5+ years performing structural design and analysis on rotating machinery, aerospace hardware, propulsion systems, turbines, compressors, or similarly demanding hardware.

• Deep fluency with finite-element analysis and strong fundamentals in mechanics of materials, fatigue, fracture, contact, thermal stress, and high-speed rotating structures.

• Experience taking structural analyses through drawing release, manufacturing, and hardware test.

• Experience evaluating manufacturing deviations and making technically defensible hardware-use decisions.

• Strong technical judgment and the ability to communicate structural margins, uncertainty, and failure modes clearly across a multidisciplinary team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD in Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.

• Experience with gas turbines, steam turbines, turbopumps, turbochargers, compressors, or high-speed generators.

• Experience with rotor burst, containment, spin testing, strain-gauge testing, or structural test correlation.

• Experience with high-temperature alloys, forgings, castings, additive components, ANSYS Mechanical, Abaqus, or equivalent advanced FEA tools.

Benefits & Compensation

• Meaningful equity ownership in an early-stage company.

• 100% of employee medical premiums and 80% of dependent medical premiums covered.

• 100% employer-paid dental and vision coverage.

• Employer-paid basic life insurance and long-term disability coverage.

• 401(k) retirement plan.

• Unlimited PTO that we actually expect you to take.

• 8 weeks of paid parental leave.

• Significant ownership of real hardware.

• A beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains from the office.

Our Commitment

American Supercritical is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

Our hiring process is designed to be accessible, fair, and focused on the work that matters most for the role. Reasonable accommodations are available throughout the hiring process and employment.