Turbomachinery Aerodynamics Engineer

American Turbines•San Francisco, CA

22h

About The Position

American Turbines is a seed-stage company designing small modular gas turbines for distributed power generation. Its turbines are designed for scalable manufacturing and operation in arrays to meet changing power demand. The Aerodynamics Engineer will own aerodynamic design for compressor and turbine stages, from meanline modeling through detailed three-dimensional blade shaping and test correlation. The role determines the machine’s efficiency, stability, and operating range, including defining flow-path architecture, selecting stage count, and designing blade profiles. The engineer will run and interpret CFD, make design decisions before hardware is manufactured, and instrument and test hardware to compare predictions with measurements.

Requirements

Experience in turbomachinery aerodynamic design, ideally across both compressor and turbine stages.
Proficiency with meanline and throughflow tools.
Proficiency with 3D CFD, such as ANSYS CFX, Numeca, or equivalent.
Proficiency with blade parametric design.
Understanding of tradeoffs between efficiency, surge margin, and manufacturability.
Ability to move between conceptual sizing and detailed design while maintaining rigor.
Experience with running hardware and understanding the strengths and limitations of CFD.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with small gas turbines, turbochargers, or turboshaft engines is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Own aerodynamic design of compressor and turbine stages, from meanline modeling through detailed 3D blade shaping and test correlation.
Define the flow-path architecture and stage count.
Design blade profiles for the turbine.
Run CFD and interpret results.
Determine when a design is ready for manufacturing.
Instrument and test hardware, and close the loop between predictions and measurements.