AtmosZero · Loveland, Colorado (onsite) · Full-time · Engineer III / Senior Engineer I / Senior Engineer II
Reports To: VP, Engineering
Why this role exists
Industrial steam runs manufacturing - breweries, dairies, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals - and almost all of it still comes from a boiler design that predates the jet engine. Much of the U.S. fleet is decades past its prime, facing volatile fuel costs, tightening limits on new combustion, and no cheap way to add capacity.
Boiler 2.0 is a modular heat pump that makes steam at up to 185°C from electricity and air alone. Because it moves heat rather than creating it, it returns roughly 2 units of steam energy per unit of electricity, against well under one for combustion. It drops into the old boiler's footprint and scales by adding modules - no stack, no fuel line, no combustion permit. Units are in production now in Loveland, Colorado.
The compressor is one of the most important technical and cost levers in the system. We need to move from first-generation hardware toward production-intent designs that are lower cost, manufacturable, reliable, and supported by a scalable supplier base. That work spans the full rotating assembly: aerodynamic and mechanical design, motors, bearings, seals, cast components, instrumentation, controls interfaces, supplier execution, and validation. You would own a real share of that work.
Level and scope
We are hiring one person into this role at whichever of three levels best matches the scope, independence, and judgment demonstrated through the interview process. Apply once and we will place you.
- Engineer III. You independently execute significant turbomachinery design and validation work with limited supervision. You own defined projects or subsystems, exercise sound engineering judgment, coordinate technical interfaces, and consistently deliver meaningful outcomes from analysis through hardware test.
- Senior Engineer I. You lead complex turbomachinery initiatives through ambiguity, own major compressor subsystems or development workstreams end to end, mentor teammates, and influence technical decisions beyond your immediate area of responsibility.
- Senior Engineer II. You are a recognized turbomachinery expert who leads highly complex, cross-functional efforts spanning rotating machinery, motors, suppliers, controls, manufacturing, and system integration. You set technical direction and frequently drive execution without direct authority.
If you are between levels or arrived at this expertise through an unusual route, apply anyway.
What you will do
Own key compressor development workstreams
- Work in close partnership with team to develop production-intent compressor hardware for high-temperature industrial heat-pump applications.
- Own key technical workstreams across the high-speed rotating assembly, including impellers, shafts, bearings, seals, housings, motors, interfaces, and supporting instrumentation.
- Translate system-level requirements into compressor operating maps, mechanical requirements, interface specifications, and validation criteria.
- Lead technical efforts to improve performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost as the compressor moves toward production.
Advance design-to-cost and production readiness
- Lead compressor cost-down work involving cast components, part consolidation, alternate manufacturing processes, production-intent instrumentation, motors, seals, and supplier alternatives.
- Develop and evaluate design concepts that reduce cost and lead time while preserving performance, reliability, safety, and serviceability.
- Work with mechanical design, manufacturing, and supply-chain teams to convert concepts into released drawings, supplier-ready packages, and executable engineering changes.
- Support should-cost analysis, competitive sourcing, and technical evaluation of domestic and international suppliers.
Model, analyze, and make decisions
- Use first-principles analysis and appropriate simulation tools to assess aerodynamic performance, rotor dynamics, structural integrity, thermal behavior, critical speeds, vibration, and component life.
- Define assumptions, margins, and acceptance criteria clearly enough that analysis can drive design decisions rather than simply document them.
- Review and challenge external analyses, supplier calculations, test results, and design proposals for technical completeness and sound judgment.
Test, validate, and learn
- Develop component and system-level validation plans, instrumentation requirements, test procedures, and acceptance criteria for compressor hardware.
- Analyze performance, vibration, thermal, electrical, and reliability data to identify root causes and confirm or reject design assumptions.
- Support prototype builds, commissioning, troubleshooting, failure investigations, and corrective actions in the lab, at suppliers, and in field systems.
Lead suppliers and external specialists
- Coordinate compressor suppliers, motor specialists, casting suppliers, engineering consultants, and test partners across parallel workstreams.
- Prepare technical packages for RFQs, design reviews, prototype procurement, and supplier qualification.
- Drive clear ownership, decisions, interfaces, and action closure across organizations where you may not have direct authority.
Mature the product
- Lead design reviews, DFMEA, technical risk reduction, and validation closure for compressor changes.
- Capture lessons from fabrication, assembly, testing, and field operation, then turn those lessons into controlled design improvements.
- Identify patentable inventions and help turn them into invention disclosures and filings.
What success looks like in your first year
- In your first 90 days you understand the current compressor architecture, supplier landscape, open technical risks, and cost-down roadmap, and you own a defined development workstream.
- By six months you have driven a production-intent design or supplier package through analysis, review, and prototype or procurement commitment.
- By twelve months a compressor change you led is validated in hardware and is reducing cost, lead time, technical risk, or supplier dependence while meeting defined performance requirements.
What we need from you
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related discipline, with experience appropriate to the level at which you are hired.
- Strong command of turbomachinery fundamentals, including compressible flow, rotating machinery, thermodynamics, heat transfer, vibration, and mechanical design.
- Demonstrated experience designing, analyzing, testing, or troubleshooting compressors or comparable high-speed rotating equipment in hardware, not only in simulation.
- Experience with one or more of the following: aerodynamic design, rotor dynamics, bearings, seals, electric motors, high-speed shafts, cast housings, impellers, or vibration analysis.
- Ability to connect component-level decisions to system performance, controls, manufacturability, reliability, and cost.
- Experience developing test plans, defining instrumentation, analyzing data, and closing the loop from test results back into the design.
- Experience producing the documentation that engineering decisions live in: requirements, specifications, interface definitions, calculations, drawings, test plans, and design-review records.
- Ability to work directly with suppliers and external specialists, resolve incomplete information, and drive technically sound decisions through ambiguity.
- Comfort with the pace of a startup building physical hardware, where the answer is often that nobody has one yet.
What would help
We do not expect anyone to have all of this. The first two are the ones we would most like to see.
- Hands-on experience developing centrifugal compressors, turbo-compressors, expanders, turbochargers, or comparable high-speed rotating machinery from concept through validation.
- Experience with rotor-dynamic, aerodynamic, structural, thermal, or electromagnetic analysis tools used for turbomachinery development.
- Experience with high-speed electric motors, motor cooling, power electronics interfaces, magnetic or rolling-element bearings, and dynamic sealing systems.
- Experience designing cast or machined turbomachinery components and working with foundries, machine shops, and production suppliers.
- Experience with refrigeration, industrial heat pumps, ORC systems, process gas compression, steam systems, or other demanding thermal equipment.
- Experience leading cost reduction, value engineering, should-cost analysis, supplier qualification, and competitive sourcing for complex hardware.
- Experience coordinating external consultants and reviewing third-party models, calculations, drawings, and test reports.
- Experience with failure analysis, vibration diagnostics, high-speed data acquisition, and root-cause investigation.
- A graduate degree, professional engineering license, or patents you helped develop.
Compensation and benefits
Base salary range:
- Engineer III [$110,000 - $165,000]
- Senior Engineer I [$125,000 - $180,000]
- Senior Engineer II [$140,000 - $200,000]
Where an offer lands within a range depends on experience, demonstrated capability, and interview performance.
Equity: Stock option grant
Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision coverage; retirement plan; paid time off and holidays; and parental leave.