SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Mainspring Energy manufactures fuel-flexible, low-emissions local power solutions for Fortune 500 companies, data centers, and utilities. The company has shipped hundreds of megawatts of its Mainspring Linear Generators since 2020 and partners with major energy leaders including AEP, NextEra Energy Resources, and Schneider Electric.
The Rings team owns one of the most technically demanding challenges in the Linear Generator: a piston and ring system that seals without liquid lubricant. This is foundational to the product's low-emissions and maintenance business model. The design space involves complex sealing geometry, demanding thermal and pressure conditions, and material performance that must be considered simultaneously. Progressing the ring service interval is one of Mainspring's most important development programs.
As a Staff Mechanical Engineer on this team, you will take ownership of a significant piece of this challenge. You will lead ring and piston development projects, including setting requirements and scope, developing novel designs, reviewing colleagues' designs and analyses in detail, and building production introduction plans. You will design complex moving parts from origination through detailed design, build, test, and evaluation. You will assess and root-cause failures involving coupled thermal, structural, materials, and fluid interactions, balancing rigorous analysis with hands-on physical intuition. You will design and run effective test campaigns using both benchtop rigs and in-generator experiments to validate designs and accelerate learning. You will discover and define requirements on surrounding subsystems to improve ring and piston performance. You will collaborate closely with a talented engineering team in a fast-paced, iterative environment.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent with at least 8 years of experience, OR Ph.D. with at least 5 years of experience
- Proactive and collaborative work style suited for dynamic R&D environments where priorities evolve
- Experience designing high-performance, precision parts from R&D through production release
- Fluency in SolidWorks or comparable CAD package; comfortable using structural and thermal FEA as a design tool (Ansys a plus)
- Ability to generate 2D drawings for manufacturing with GD&T proficiency
- Excellent physical understanding and intuition in structural mechanics and heat transfer; strength in tribology, fluid mechanics, or thermodynamics a plus
- Systems approach to problem solving; preference for examining whole systems to identify negative interactions and improvement opportunities
NICE TO HAVE:
- Excellent understanding of thermodynamics and experience with complex thermodynamic systems; power generation, energy storage, and aerospace (especially turbomachinery or propulsion) experience highly relevant
- Experience designing for high-cycle fatigue and high-pressure, high-temperature environments; superalloy experience a plus
- Python programming fluency for data analysis; experience developing and validating simplified models to inform failure analysis and design
