Thermal Systems Engineer

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 engineering is unforgiving: high pressure ratios, compressor and refrigerant choices with little precedent at this duty, two-phase heat transfer that must stay predictable across a wide operating envelope. We are taking a working product into volume production, and the thermal architecture set in the next two years will govern every unit after it. You would own a real share of that.

We are hiring one person into this role at whichever of three levels fits your experience. We will calibrate during the interview process — apply once and we will place you.

• Senior Engineer I (5+ years).

• Senior Engineer II (8+ years).

• Principal Engineer (12+ years).

If you are between levels or arrived at this expertise by an unusual route, apply anyway.

• Define operating envelopes, control strategies, and system architectures for next-generation Boiler 2.0 products, using modeling, test data, and engineering judgment in roughly equal measure.

• Lead component selection, sizing, and integration across heat exchangers, compressors, valves, pumps, and supporting equipment — including the supplier conversations that make those choices real.

• Own the engineering documentation that holds the design together: P&IDs, system specifications, and design requirements.

• Find and drive the performance, reliability, and cost-reduction opportunities that matter most at our production volumes.

• Work with our controls engineers to develop operating sequences, fault protection, interlocks, and system control philosophy.

• Define instrumentation and data acquisition requirements for prototype, pilot, and production systems — then use what those sensors tell you to improve the system.

• Lead test plans, validation protocols, and acceptance criteria, then plan and execute the lab, prototype, pilot, and field testing behind them.

• Analyze performance data to find root causes, confirm or kill design assumptions, and feed the result back into the product.

• Support commissioning and troubleshooting of development and field systems. Expect occasional travel to customer sites and suppliers.

• Lead DFMEA and technical risk reduction, and carry design reviews and gate reviews through to closed action items.

• Identify patentable inventions and help turn them into invention disclosures and filings.

• In your first 90 days you have a working mental model of the full thermal system, have run or sat alongside a test campaign, and have formed your own opinion on where the design is weakest.

• By six months you own your subsystem or architecture outright, and the team routes decisions in that area to you rather than around you.

• By twelve months a design change you led is validated by test data and on its way into shipping units.

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, or a related…