Fluid Dynamics Engineer

About the Role

Fuse is designing and constructing Z-Star, a next-generation pulsed-power accelerator requiring the management, recirculation, filtration, and conditioning of multi-million-liter volumes of high-voltage transformer oil and deionized (DI) water.

As the Fluid Dynamics Engineer, you'll lead the design, simulation, and operational integration of these large-scale fluid systems from concept through commissioning.

Core Responsibilities

• System Design: Design and develop large-scale fluid circuits for storing, transporting, recirculating, and reconditioning millions of liters of transformer dielectric oil and deionized water, including pump selection, piping layout, filtration trains, heat exchangers, and storage-tank configuration.
• CFD Simulation: Build and run high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics models of oil and DI-water flow paths to optimize circulation rates, identify cavitation or turbulence risks, and ensure dielectric integrity under operational conditions.
• Dielectric Fluid Management: Develop and maintain fluid-quality protocols including oil breakdown-voltage testing, moisture-content control, and particle filtration, consistent with high-voltage pulsed-power standards.
• DI Water Conditioning: Design and oversee the mixed-resin-bed ion-exchange system to maintain DI-water resistivity, dissolved-gas content, and temperature within operational limits.
• Thermal Analysis: Perform thermohydraulic analyses to quantify heat loads from repeated pulsed discharges and design cooling strategies that maintain fluid properties within required dielectric specifications.
• P&ID and Documentation: Develop Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs), system schematics, bills of materials, and operational procedures for all fluid subsystems.
• Commissioning and Troubleshooting: Support fabrication, testing, and commissioning of fluid systems on-site; diagnose and resolve operational anomalies during early shot campaigns.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Work closely with pulsed-power, high-voltage, structural, and vacuum engineering teams to ensure fluid-system integration with electrode geometry, transmission lines, and chamber design.

Minimum Qualifications

• B.Sc.or M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Applied Physics with a strong fluid-mechanics concentration.
• Demonstrated experience with commercial or open-source CFD tools such as ANSYS Fluent, ANSYS CFX, OpenFOAM, or COMSOL Multiphysics.
• 2+ years designing or operating large-scale industrial fluid systems including pumps, filters, heat exchangers, and piping networks in energy, nuclear, defense, or high-voltage environments.
• Familiarity with transformer oil or similar dielectric insulating fluids, including properties, degradation mechanisms, filtration, and electrical testing.
• Strong command of convective and forced-flow heat transfer for system-level thermal management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with deionized-water systems, ion-exchange resin beds, degassing, and resistivity monitoring in high-voltage or pulsed-power environments.
• Knowledge of pulsed power, particle accelerators, fusion energy, or high-energy-density physics facilities.
• Knowledge of ASME piping codes, industrial safety standards, and high-voltage facility regulations.
• Proficiency in Python for post-processing simulation data and automating fluid-quality reporting.

What We Value

• Give a shit. Build things you're proud of.
• Take responsibility. If something is broken and you can fix it, fix it. See things through.
• Move fast. Make decisions, learn quickly, and keep moving forward.
• Think bigger. Simplify relentlessly. Don't default to the safe answer.
• Disagree and commit. The best idea wins. Once a decision is made, we move.
• Desire to win. This is hard. Expect intensity. We are here to win.
• Plan B is to make Plan A work.

Additional Requirements

This is not a remote position and will require relocation if not already local to the applicable Fuse facility.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Relocation assistance for roles that require it.
• Flexible time off. Take what you need, no accrual tracking.
• 2 weeks of paid time off built into the end of each year, subject to team and business needs.
• Supportive leave of absence policies.
• Paid leave for new parents.

Itar Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.