Mechanical Engineer, Innovation

Mechanical Engineer, Innovation

Brooklyn, NY

Brightcore Energy provides end-to-end energy efficiency and clean energy measures to commercial, industrial, and institutional clients. We have the intellectual and financial capital to develop, implement, fund, operate, and maintain clean energy solutions. Our diverse solutions range from lighting, controls, geothermal heating and cooling, and other energy efficiency measures to renewable energy solutions such as solar and battery storage. We are about Building Energy Performance.

Summary/Primary Role:

This role is the go-to engineering resource for geothermal innovation at Brightcore, sitting within the Geothermal business unit. This person owns the engineering analysis behind the Innovation roadmap — evaluating new geothermal products and services at every stage of development, from first-light technical feasibility and customer value proposition work, through prototyping and experimentation, to go-to-market testing and full product rollout and scale-up.

The role spans multiple concurrent roadmap items at different points in the development chain, unified by rigorous engineering analysis of novel approaches to geothermal heating and cooling.

Principal

Duties & Responsibilities:

Geothermal Innovation Engineering

• Design innovative geothermal heating and cooling solutions, evaluating detailed HVAC, fluid flow, and geothermal modeling for novel approaches.
• Analyze heat transfer and fluid dynamics, and evaluate the performance and efficiency of heat pumps, boilers, chillers, and related HVAC equipment.
• Serve as the go-to technical resource across the Innovation team for geothermal engineering questions.

Technical Feasibility & Concept Development

• Evaluate technical feasibility and customer value proposition for new geothermal innovation roadmap items, from first-light concepts through detailed design.
• Develop techno-economic analyses (TEA) and initial design concepts for novel geothermal products and services.

Prototyping & Experimentation

• Lead prototyping efforts spanning desktop TEA models and lab-based physical prototypes to validate new solutions.
• Design and run experiments on existing systems to generate performance data and test hypotheses.

Product Development & Go-to-Market Support

• Translate engineering analysis into product requirement documents (PRDs) for engineering, product, and business development teams.
• Create go-to-market test materials and technical collateral supporting customer-facing pilots.
• Support initial customer engagements and full product rollout and scale-up as roadmap items mature into commercial offerings.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with the Brightcore EDGE monitoring team, BCE Design engineering, and business development across the innovation pipeline.
• Prepare drawings, calculations, and study drafts for review by licensed professional engineers
• All other duties and projects as assigned.

Qualifications:

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
• 3–5 years in HVAC, data center design & operation, hydronic, geothermal, or mission-critical mechanical design and analysis.
• Strong grounding in heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics; comfort reasoning through equipment performance metrics (COP, EER, approach temperatures, heat transfer rates).
• Working proficiency with energy/load modeling tools (e.g., TRNSYS, Energy Plus, HAP, or equivalent) and Excel-based engineering models.
• Ability to carry ambiguous concept work — from first-light feasibility through prototype to product requirement — to a defensible, documented result without heavy supervision.
• Fluent with AI tools.
• Ability to do basic coding in python, or quickly come up the learning curve.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• This position does not have supervisory responsibility.

Expected Hours of Work & Compensation:

An employee is expected to work a minimum of forty (40) hours per week. Non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay in accordance with applicable wage and hour laws, while exempt employees may be required to work additional hours as necessary to fulfill their job responsibilities. Overtime requirements will be determined based on the operational needs of the…