Senior Mechanical Engineer (Primary Structures)

Endurance Energy • Seattle, WA

1d • $170,000 - $230,000

About The Position

Endurance is hiring a Senior Mechanical Engineer to own load-bearing hardware for modular subsea geothermal power plants. The primary structure supports the plant’s hot loop, power electronics, and well connection; it must survive lifting, splash-zone transit, and seafloor landing, then operate for years in seawater at 100–300 bar. The role covers frames and skids, foundations and landing systems, lifting and deployment hardware, mooring and anchoring interfaces, and pressure housings and pressure-tolerant structures. Engineers own assigned structures end to end, from requirements and design through drawings, fabrication, testing, qualification, and deployment. Endurance favors compensated and pressure-tolerant designs where possible, and uses ASME, DNV, and API as references while developing its qualification basis through testing.

During the first year, the engineer will help deliver the primary structure for Endurance’s first commercial system, including its design, analysis, fabrication, qualification, lifting, and seafloor landing. The role contributes to plant-level architecture decisions alongside principal engineers and defines interfaces with peer-owned fluid, electromechanical, and well-connection systems. The team is a small group of senior and principal engineers seeking people with hands-on hardware experience who are prepared to own results.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, structural, or ocean engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• At least 6 years of professional experience designing and analyzing load-bearing structures for demanding environments.
• Ownership of at least one large structure from design through fabrication and fielded use.

Nice To Haves

• Experience designing primary structures for subsea or offshore systems, submarines or naval vessels, launch vehicles or aircraft, or heavy industrial equipment.
• Experience designing or analyzing pressure vessels, especially for external pressure, and familiarity with ASME VIII, DNV, or API.
• Strong fundamentals in solid mechanics, structural dynamics, and fatigue, with the ability to size structures by hand before confirming them with FEA.
• Fabrication fluency, including weld-joint design, allowables, NDT and inspection, and tolerancing of large weldments.
• Experience designing lifting and rigging hardware or working with marine operations.
• Experience building test articles and running structural qualification tests.
• Experience at a small or fast-moving hardware organization, making engineering decisions with incomplete information and limited resources.
• A track record of taking on increasing responsibility and delivering something difficult early in a career.
• Experience on an engineering competition team such as Formula SAE, Baja SAE, RoboSub, or rocketry, or an equivalent self-directed hardware project.

Responsibilities

• Own specific primary-structure elements end to end, such as frames, foundations and landing systems, lifting and deployment hardware, or pressure housings.
• Define structural load cases from first principles, including lifting through the splash zone, transit, landing on irregular seafloor, hot-loop thermal expansion, hydrodynamic loads, fatigue, and corrosion.
• Size structures using hand calculations and verify them with FEA for static, fatigue, buckling, external-pressure collapse, and thermal conditions.
• Design pressure-tolerant and pressure-compensated structures where possible, and design and analyze pressure housings where required.
• Design lifting, rigging, deployment, and recovery hardware and interfaces to vessels, cranes, and ROVs.
• Select materials and corrosion strategies for multi-year seawater exposure, including cathodic protection, coatings, galvanic isolation, titanium, duplex stainless, and composites.
• Own weld design and fabrication for assigned structures, working directly with fabricators on procedures, inspection, and tolerances.
• Build and test development articles and qualify full structures through hydrostatic, external-pressure, fatigue, and thermal-cycling tests.
• Lead root-cause investigations of structural and housing failures and implement corrective actions.
• Define interfaces with fluid components, electromechanical hardware, and well connections owned by peers.
• Contribute to plant-level architecture decisions alongside principal engineers.
• Create detailed 3D CAD models, drawings, and tolerance stacks for large assemblies.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and generous equity packages for full-time employees.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance coverage.
• Flexible PTO, including 12 paid company holidays.
• Travel to deployment sites along oceanic ridges, including locations such as the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, and the Azores.
• Participation in sea trials and deployment operations in partnership with leading oceanographic institutions.
• Company-sponsored recreational dive certification.
• Access to the company boat.
• Free meals and snacks.

What This Job Offers

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