Senior Gas Turbine Performance Engineer: AI Accelerated Engineering

Caterpillar•San Diego, CA

22d•Onsite

About The Position

This role is for a Senior Gas Turbine Performance Engineer focused on AI Accelerated Engineering. The engineer will work at the intersection of engine physics, product decisions, and real operating data, building performance models and software that influence new product definition, test cell execution, and fielded fleet operations. The Gas Turbine Performance Group leads concept and advanced cycle studies, delivers calibrated performance predictions for new and upgraded engines, and oversees performance during engine development. They support production and acceptance testing, and enable product support teams worldwide with tools to analyze, predict, and guarantee engine performance. A key mission is building and maintaining the ecosystem of models, workflows, automation, and data pipelines that translate thermodynamics, test, and field data into decisions. Transient cycle models and calibrated physics tools are foundational for AI-enabled digital twins, aiming to unlock longer service intervals, better cycle count capability, and improved efficiency through operational flexibility.

Requirements

B.S. / B.Eng. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering (or closely related field).
Experience with multiple design cycles within industry and performance engineering to real-world problems.
Foundation of knowledge for growth in gas turbine performance and thermodynamics (cycles, maps, matching, operability concepts, off-design behavior).
Ability to work through ambiguity, manage priorities, and deliver high-quality results under schedule pressure.
Clear written and verbal communication skills; ability to explain assumptions, results, and risks to both technical and nontechnical partners.
Proven habit of finishing work with thoroughness and reliability (validation, documentation, and follow-through).

Nice To Haves

Applicable experience in gas turbine performance, aerodynamics, instrumentation, real-world testing or closely related area.
Applied knowledge of model calibration and troubleshooting of gas turbine performance/operability in steady state and/or transient.
Strong engineering software skills, building scripts, code, or automation that makes other engineers faster and improves quality.
Familiarity with controls and control logic and controls software.

Responsibilities

Analyze acceptance test and fleet/field datasets to trend performance, troubleshoot issues, and monitor aeromechanical/operability behavior across product lines.
Build, calibrate, and defend steady state and transient performance models for new products, upgrades, and investigations.
Develop and maintain internal software used across design, sales/applications, customer services, overhaul, and customer sites, improving usability, automation, traceability, and confidence in results.
Apply modern AI techniques to speed up calibration and uncertainty exploration, enable anomaly detection and diagnostics, create physics-grounded reduced-order models, and support digital twin workflows using physics-guided learning approaches.
Collaborate with design, controls, test, operations, and digital teams to solve urgent problems and build long-term capability.