Thermal Systems Engineer

About the role

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.

• Level and scope
• 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). You own major subsystems end to end — the refrigerant loop, the steam generation side, or the heat exchanger package — from requirements through test and into production.
• Senior Engineer II (8+ years). You own the thermal system architecture for a product line, make the cross-subsystem tradeoffs, and set the test strategy that validates them.
• Principal Engineer (12+ years). You set thermal technical direction across programs, resolve the hardest open questions in the technology roadmap, and grow the judgment of the engineers around you.
• If you are between levels or arrived at this expertise by an unusual route, apply anyway.

What you will do

• Own thermal system architecture
• 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.
• Integrate controls and instrumentation
• 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.
• Test, validate, and learn
• 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.
• Mature the product
• 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.
• What success looks like in your first year
• 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.
• What we need from you
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, or a related discipline, and relevant experience at the level you are applying for (5 / 8 / 12+ years as above).
• Strong command of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics — and the ability to tell when the model is lying to you.
• Demonstrated experience designing, testing, and troubleshooting thermal-fluid systems in hardware, not only in simulation.
• Experience developing and executing engineering test programs, including instrumentation and data acquisition for thermal-fluid equipment.
• Fluency with system modeling and analysis tools such as EES, Aspen Plus/HYSYS, MATLAB, Simulink, GT-SUITE, HTRI, or Python.
• Experience producing the documentation that engineering decisions live in: specifications, P&IDs, and test procedures.
• Comfort with the ambiguity and pace of a startup building physical hardware, where the answer is often that nobody has one yet.
• What would help
• We do not expect anyone to have all of this. The first two are the ones we would most like to see.
• Detailed heat exchanger design, selection, and qualification experience — shell-and-tube, plate-and-frame, brazed plate, or refrigerant heat exchangers — using HTRI or equivalent. Manufacturing exposure is a real plus.
• Experience with industrial heat pumps, refrigeration, ORC, steam systems, turbomachinery, or comparable industrial thermal equipment, ideally at an OEM or supplier.
• Experience developing controls architectures, operating sequences, alarms, and protection strategies for complex systems.
• Experience taking hardware through commercialization and production scale-up.
• Experience leading DFMEA, design reviews, and risk reduction on multidisciplinary programs.
• Experience commissioning and troubleshooting complex thermal systems in the field.
• Experience qualifying engineered components with external suppliers.
• A graduate degree in a relevant field, or patents you helped develop.

Base salary range

Senior Engineer I [$125,000 - $180,000] · Senior Engineer II [$140,000 – $200,000] · Principal Engineer [$165,000 – $220,000]. Where an offer lands within a range depends on experience, demonstrated capability, and interview performance.

Equity: Stock option grant (Level dependent)

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage; retirement plan and any match; paid time off and holidays; parental leave.
• This position reports to the Senior Director, New Product Development.

• About Company ---

AtmosZero is building the next generation of industrial steam infrastructure. Our flagship product, Boiler 2.0, is a modular industrial steam heat pump designed to help manufacturers reduce operational risk, improve flexibility, and modernize steam generation over time. Rather than forcing facilities to choose between reliability and sustainability, AtmosZero enables a practical path toward future-ready steam systems that integrate with existing operations and scale with customer needs.