Senior FEA Engineer

Thea Energy•Kearny, NJ

2d•$130,000 - $160,000

About The Position

Thea Energy is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Senior Finite Element Analyst to join our rapidly growing team. In this pivotal role, you'll be instrumental in performing advanced analysis to design, optimize, and verify the thermal, structural, and magnetic requirements of our cutting-edge stellarator systems. If you have at least 8 years of professional experience and a strong background in mechanical engineering, applied mechanics, materials, and simulation, you'll be well-positioned to deliver insightful results, provide data-driven recommendations, and justify critical design decisions.

Requirements

8+ years of experience performing Finite Element Analysis with commercial software.
Experience in scripting and building tools around commercial FEA tools
Demonstrated ability to solve complex engineering problems and identify root causes through meticulous analysis.
Proven experience developing first-of-its-kind components or systems.
Provides technical guidance and peer-review for junior analysts (Eng I/II/III) to ensure model accuracy and best practices.
Serves as the internal Subject Matter Expert (SME) on complex weld evaluations and cryogenic material behavior.
Comfortable working to ambitious timelines with an exceptional work ethic, adaptability, and a continuous improvement mindset.
A strong team player with excellent communication and collaboration skills.
An innate desire to learn, innovate, and critically evaluate ideas, including your own.

Responsibilities

Sets strategic FEA methodology and architecture across primary stellarator systems, leads first-of-its-kind problem-solving initiatives, mentors team members, and serves as the primary authority on high-risk engineering decisions.
Develop and Analyze Complex FE Models: Create and oversee system-level architectural models and highly coupled multi-physics simulations to support the design of major stellarator systems and prototyping activities.
Perform Multi-Domain Simulations: Be responsible for multi-domain models, including thermal, mechanical, vibration, and magnetic loads.
Conduct In-Depth Performance Evaluation: Execute steady-state and transient analyses with accurate material models to evaluate designs for stress/strain, fatigue, and creep during start-up, steady-state operation, shutdown, and off-nominal operating conditions.
Optimize Structural Designs: Utilize various techniques to optimize structures for optimal performance under all loading conditions, minimizing weight, and maximizing maintainability.
Drive Design Improvements: Actively participate in the design process, identifying opportunities for improvements that lead to higher-performing, lower-cost, and more maintainable systems.
Material Modeling: Develop material models and identify required property development to ensure accurate analysis.