Director of Turbomachinery

Job description

ABOUT ENDURANCE Endurance is building the world's first modular subsea geothermal power plants, converting vast thermal resources under the ocean into gigawatts of baseload power. Backed by Founders Fund, Felicis, First Round Capital, and Point72 Ventures, our founding team includes veterans from SpaceX, Helion, Blue Origin, and Apple. We have completed multiple deep-ocean deployments to subsea volcanoes and are launching a long-term demonstration project this fall. By leveraging modular design, manufacturing scale, efficient drilling, and latent cooling on the seafloor, we are pioneering a new category of energy that outperforms traditional sources on environmental impact, deployment speed, and cost. WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING Endurance is developing fully custom turbomachinery, heat exchangers, and balance of plant for our 2MW and 10MW sCO2 generators. This role owns our turbomachinery both technically and organizationally. As Director of Turbomachinery, you will set the technical direction for turbine and pump development across the full product lifecycle: from thermodynamic cycle integration and aero-thermal design, through manufacturing and test, to long-duration operation on the seafloor. You will build and lead the turbomachinery team, and your decisions will directly shape the performance, reliability, and cost of our core power conversion hardware. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Set Technical Direction: Define the aero-thermal design philosophy and architecture for turbines and pumps across all power generation cycles, making final calls on design tradeoffs at the system level. - Lead the Team: Hire, develop, and manage a team of turbomachinery engineers. Foster a culture of rigorous first-principles engineering paired with a strong bias toward hardware. - Own the Program: Drive turbomachinery development from early-stage sizing and trade studies through detailed design, validation, and subsea deployment — holding accountability for schedule, performance, and reliability. - Design Through Test: Personally lead critical design work — from 1D sizing and CFD analysis to mechanical integration of rotors, housings, bearings, and seals — and see it through to hardware assembly and test validation. - Govern Simulation and Analysis: Set standards for 3D CFD and structural FEA across the team, ensuring analytical rigor and model correlation with experimental data. - Define the Test Strategy: Own the overall validation approach for rotating equipment, from bench-level component tests through full system operation. Ensure failure modes are identified and resolved before deployment. - Drive Cross-Functional Integration: Partner with systems, thermal, mechanical, and operations teams to ensure turbomachinery fits within the broader power plant architecture and field constraints. - Build for Scale: Establish the internal tools, design standards, and documentation frameworks that allow the turbomachinery function — and the product line — to grow. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS - Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering or similar field (Master’s or PhD preferred). - 10+ years of experience in the design, analysis, and testing of high speed rotating machinery (pumps, compressors, or turbines). - Strong fundamentals in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. - Experience with CAD software (e.g., Siemens NX) and rapid prototyping. - Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, "scrappy" startup environment. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS - Experience with turbomachinery design tools such as AxStream, CFTurbo etc. - Proficiency in CFD and numerical simulation tools (e.g., ANSYS CFX/Fluent, OpenFOAM, or Numeca). - Experience with supercritical CO2 or organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbomachinery. - Knowledge of high-pressure seal design and rotor dynamics. - Hands-on experience setting up and operating high-speed rotating equipment test rigs. - Programming skills (Python, MATLAB, or C++) for automated design optimization and data analysis. COMPENSATION, BENEFITS, & PERKS As a pre-revenue startup, Endurance Energy offers competitive base salaries and generous equity packages for full-time employees. Final base salary will be determined by an array of factors including internal equity, job-related knowledge, skills, and work experience. A key aspect of our compensation philosophy is that value creation should be aligned with rewards. Right now this means equity is a significant portion of every full-time employee's compensation. As the company matures, there will be continued evolution and changes to the total rewards and total compensation package. What will always be true is that if we win, we win together. Equity is granted to every full-time employee as a meaningful piece of ownership. We believe the people building the company should share directly in the value they create. In addition to a competitive base salary and equity, employees will receive all of our other great benefits and perks, including: - Benefits: Health, Dental, and Vision insurance coverage - Time Away: Flexible PTO including 12 paid company holidays - Global Fieldwork: Travel to fascinating deployment sites along oceanic ridges in locations like the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, and the Azores - Hands-on Experience: Participate in sea trials and deployment operations in partnership with leading oceanographic institutions - Cutting-edge Development: Work with technology that spans high-power electronics, marine systems, and clean energy - Impactful Work: Help solve one of the world's most pressing challenges - Dive Certification: Company-sponsored recreational dive certification - Other Perks: Access to the company boat, free meals and snacks, and the list goes on! If you’re selected for consideration, a recruiter will be able to discuss in greater detail.