Propulsion Engineer (Turbomachinery)

A thriving economy in space is needed to make life on Earth more vibrant, sustainable, and equitable. Space technology will enable global access to information, solutions to climate change, answers to global food security, products that transform healthcare, clean energy production, and more. Today, rocket launch options are slow, expensive, and unreliable. Stoke is building the world's most efficient fully and rapidly reusable rocket designed to fly daily that will radically increase access to space and open up the space economy to safeguard our precious home, Earth.

Description

Reusable systems are the key to seamlessly connecting Earth and space. As a turbomachinery engineer at an early-stage start-up, you will have extreme ownership over all aspects of turbomachinery design, analysis, manufacturing, testing, and validation for advanced reusable rocket engines. You will work closely with the engines development team through all phases of the product lifecycle. You will seek out state-of-the-art design and manufacturing techniques and tools to solve challenging turbomachinery problems, and you will continuously iterate and improve your designs. You must be ready to stay focused, move fast, self-direct, and learn on the fly.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and test turbopumps for liquid rocket engines

• Perform hydrodynamic and aerodynamic sizing and flowpath design and analysis work for inducers, impellers, diffusers, nozzles, turbines, and other turbomachinery

• Perform hydrostatic bearing sizing, performance trending, and coatings development for turbopump bearings

• Own test verification activities to ensure accomplished tests meet requirements

• Support turbopump testing, data review, inspections, and go/no-go's

• Own performance trending of various components (inducers, impellers, turbines, axial/ radial bearing capacities, cavitation, etc)

• Own design improvement plans for turbopump components including manufacturing improvements to reduce cost and lead time

• Develop high-speed data tools to review for turbopump vibration and rotordynamics performance

• Resolve hardware build non-conformances thru resolution

• Conduct fault tree investigations and root cause analysis

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in design, build, and testing of rocket engine turbopumps or related turbomachinery experience

• Understanding of hydrodynamic/aerodynamic design and fundamentals of turbomachinery

• Extensive experience using CAD tools and configuration management (Siemens NX and Teamcenter preferred).

• Experience with mechanical design including machined parts, additive parts, weldments, fasteners, seals, and rotating assemblies.

• Experience in rocket engine turbomachinery axial/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

• Ability to lead

• Ability to follow

• Excellent written and verbal communication

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering, or similar

• Willing to relocate to Seattle, WA

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision and basic life insurance

• 401(k) match

• Paid time off

• Flexible scheduling

• Equity

Compensation

Target Levels:

• Level 2 Range: $100,400 - $150,700
• Level 3 Range: $125,600 - $188,300

Equal Opportunity

The Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including with respect to disability and veteran status. It is committed to compliance with all equal opportunity laws, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and Title VII. It does not discriminate on the basis of nationality, race, citizenship, immigration status, or any other protected class when it comes to employment practices, including hiring.

Employment at the Company is contingent upon satisfactory completion of reference and background checks, and on your ability to prove your identity and authorization to work in the U.S. for the Company. Employees must comply with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services employment verification requirements, and, therefore, they must complete an Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 at the start of employment and re-verify authorization to work periodically.

Separate from this I-9 process, this position entails access to certain technology and technical data that is restricted under U.S. export control laws and regulations. Employment or continued employment may be conditioned on your legal authorization to work with or have access to export control materials as necessary to perform your job.