Fluid Dynamics Engineer

Fuse • San Leandro, CA

6d • $110,000 - $160,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Fuse is designing and constructing Z-Star, a next-generation pulsed-power accelerator requiring the management, recirculation, filtration, and conditioning of multi-million-liter volumes of high-voltage transformer oil and deionized (DI) water. As the Fluid Dynamics Engineer, you'll lead the design, simulation, and operational integration of these large-scale fluid systems from concept through commissioning.

Requirements

• B.Sc.or M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Applied Physics with a strong fluid-mechanics concentration.
• Demonstrated experience with commercial or open-source CFD tools such as ANSYS Fluent, ANSYS CFX, OpenFOAM, or COMSOL Multiphysics.
• 2+ years designing or operating large-scale industrial fluid systems including pumps, filters, heat exchangers, and piping networks in energy, nuclear, defense, or high-voltage environments.
• Familiarity with transformer oil or similar dielectric insulating fluids, including properties, degradation mechanisms, filtration, and electrical testing.
• Strong command of convective and forced-flow heat transfer for system-level thermal management.
• U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with deionized-water systems, ion-exchange resin beds, degassing, and resistivity monitoring in high-voltage or pulsed-power environments.
• Knowledge of pulsed power, particle accelerators, fusion energy, or high-energy-density physics facilities.
• Knowledge of ASME piping codes, industrial safety standards, and high-voltage facility regulations.
• Proficiency in Python for post-processing simulation data and automating fluid-quality reporting.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop large-scale fluid circuits for storing, transporting, recirculating, and reconditioning millions of liters of transformer dielectric oil and deionized water, including pump selection, piping layout, filtration trains, heat exchangers, and storage-tank configuration.
• Build and run high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics models of oil and DI-water flow paths to optimize circulation rates, identify cavitation or turbulence risks, and ensure dielectric integrity under operational conditions.
• Develop and maintain fluid-quality protocols including oil breakdown-voltage testing, moisture-content control, and particle filtration, consistent with high-voltage pulsed-power standards.
• Design and oversee the mixed-resin-bed ion-exchange system to maintain DI-water resistivity, dissolved-gas content, and temperature within operational limits.
• Perform thermohydraulic analyses to quantify heat loads from repeated pulsed discharges and design cooling strategies that maintain fluid properties within required dielectric specifications.
• Develop Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs), system schematics, bills of materials, and operational procedures for all fluid subsystems.
• Support fabrication, testing, and commissioning of fluid systems on-site; diagnose and resolve operational anomalies during early shot campaigns.
• Work closely with pulsed-power, high-voltage, structural, and vacuum engineering teams to ensure fluid-system integration with electrode geometry, transmission lines, and chamber design.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Relocation assistance for roles that require it.
• Flexible time off. Take what you need, no accrual tracking.
• 2 weeks of paid time off built into the end of each year, subject to team and business needs.
• Supportive leave of absence policies.
• Paid leave for new parents.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level