Turbomachinery Engineer

Stoke Space • Kent, WA

3d • $129,150 - $327,810

About The Position

Stoke is building Nova, a fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle designed for daily flight, to reduce the cost of space transportation and increase availability and reliability. The Turbomachinery Engineer will own aspects of turbomachinery design, analysis, manufacturing, build, testing, and validation for advanced reusable rocket engines. The role involves finding and applying state-of-the-art design and manufacturing techniques and tools, then iterating to improve designs for rapidly reusable engines intended to fly daily. The successful candidate should be ready to stay focused, move quickly, self-direct, and learn as needed.

The position is based in Seattle, Washington, and requires willingness to relocate. Candidates must meet the stated U.S. export-control eligibility requirements for access to restricted space technology.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience as a responsible engineer who takes extreme ownership of their product.
• Demonstrated ability to manage numerous hardware workflows to meet required delivery dates.
• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a similar field.
• At least 4 years of experience in design, build, and testing of rocket engine turbopumps or related turbomachinery.
• Understanding of hydrodynamic and aerodynamic design and turbomachinery fundamentals.
• Extensive experience using CAD tools and configuration management.
• Experience with mechanical design, including machined parts, additive parts, weldments, fasteners, seals, and rotating assemblies.
• Experience with rocket engine turbomachinery axial and radial tolerance stackups and material selection.
• Experience in the design, build, and testing of inducers, impellers, volutes, turbines, nozzles, shafts, bearings, and seals.
• Experience with secondary-flow and axial-thrust-balance modeling.
• Proficiency in heat transfer, compressible and incompressible flow, and cryogenics.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Willingness to relocate to Seattle, Washington.
• Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S. (current Green Card holder), or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), to comply with U.S. export-control requirements.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Siemens NX and Teamcenter.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and test turbopumps for liquid rocket engines.
• Own turbomachinery CAD designs, drawings, and manufacturing plans.
• Perform hydrodynamic and aerodynamic sizing, flowpath design, and analysis for inducers, impellers, diffusers, nozzles, turbines, and other turbomachinery.
• Perform hydrostatic bearing sizing, performance trending, and coatings development for turbopump bearings.
• Evaluate axial thrust balance during transient and steady-state operating points.
• Perform tolerance stackups, own build books, and ensure as-built pumps meet design intent.
• Own test verification activities and ensure completed tests meet requirements.
• Support turbopump testing, data review, inspections, and go/no-go decisions.
• Own performance trending for components and capabilities including inducers, impellers, turbines, axial and radial bearings, and cavitation.
• Own turbopump component design-improvement plans, including manufacturing improvements to reduce cost and lead time.
• Use or develop high-speed data tools to review turbopump vibration and rotor-dynamics performance.
• Resolve hardware build non-conformances.
• Conduct fault-tree investigations and root-cause analysis.

Benefits

• Equity in the form of stock options for regular, full-time employees.
• Comprehensive benefits program, including subsidized medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Company-paid life and disability insurance.
• 401(k) plan with employer match.
• Four weeks of paid time off.
• Eleven holidays, including an end-of-year closure.
• Paid family/parental leave.
• On-site gym or monthly wellness stipend, depending on location.
• Dog-friendly offices.

What This Job Offers

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