CFD Engineer; Computational Fluid Dynamics

Nendo
, a Cambridge climate tech startup building plastic-free subsurface irrigation, is hiring a CFD Engineer (Computational Fluid Dynamics) to build and own its suite of models – explaining and predicting how its product performs, from flow through porous media in the lab to soil, crops and climates in the field.

• Hours: Full time
• Contract: Contract to permanent
• Salary: Competitive, depending on experience
• Reports to: Hannah Mellor, CEO
• Location: Based at Nendo’s lab in Cambridge, UK
• Start date: January 2027

Nendo is a materials innovation company building for a rapidly warming world. Its first product is a climate-resilient irrigation system: modular, plastic-free and installed below the surface. It is designed to increase crop yields, restore soil health and dramatically reduce water use for farmers, landscape restoration projects and urban environments.

Nendo’s work sits at the intersection of materials science, climate resilience, food security and nature restoration. The team is preparing for pilot deployments in the UK, India and France – and plans to commercialise once the pilots are complete, working closely with farmers, researchers and corporate partners to bring this technology to life in real-world conditions.

Nendo is a small, ambitious team led by founders with backgrounds in environmental science, urban design and product development. They care deeply about impact, integrity and thoughtful execution – making decisions backed by evidence and building a company that creates both environmental and social value.

Working at Nendo means being close to the action from day one. You will work directly with the founders, contribute to real decisions, and help shape the product that goes into the ground. Find out more at

• Build and own Nendo’s suite of models, which explain and predict how the product performs from the lab to the field.
• Seepage: model how water moves through the pipe wall and into surrounding soil.
• Material formulation: model how changes to the material affect pore structure, flow and performance.
• Performance in situ: predict how the product performs across different soils, crops and climates.
• Customer-facing models: give customers clear recommendations on crop type, water use, energy savings and soil health, informed by weather predictions.
• Calibrate and validate every model against lab and pilot data, working closely with the lab team.
• Write clean, documented code to automate simulations, process data and analyse results.
• Translate complex technical jargon into plain language for customers, investors and the founders.

• Proven CFD experience in industry or research, with a relevant degree or PhD in engineering, physics, applied mathematics or similar.
• Experience modelling flow through porous media.
• Hands-on experience with a CFD tool such as OpenFOAM, ANSYS Fluent or COMSOL.
• A record of validating models against experimental or field data.
• A gift for plain English. You can explain a complex model to a farmer, a customer or an investor.
• Range and curiosity. You are excited to build many kinds of model, from the physics of a pore to a recommendation a customer can act on.
• Comfortable building models from scratch, without a large team around you.

• Python experience, including Num Py, Sci Py and pandas.
• Soil water or hydrology modelling, such as the Richards equation or HYDRUS.
• Experience with crop, soil health, weather or climate data and models.
• Pore-scale methods, such as pore network modelling, lattice Boltzmann or working with micro-CT data.
• Machine learning applied to physical systems or materials.
• Experience building models or decision tools that customers use directly.

• Strengthen global food security: your models directly shape the product that goes in the ground and how customers use it.
• Help make water-efficient irrigation possible wherever water is running short.
• Work on materials science innovation that helps humanity thrive in a rapidly warming world.
• Build Nendo’s modelling from the ground up, working directly with the founders.

Tagged as: agriculture, agritech, climate tech, data, early-stage startup, engineer, engineering, materials science, ML, modelling, soil