Extreme Environment Pump - Senior R&D Engineer
ARC will be the first machine to produce electricity from fusion energy, serving as the cornerstone to a new industry. ARC will strongly leverage the work that’s been done for SPARC in developing HTS magnets and other key tokamak systems. However, because of its mission to deliver power to the grid, the ARC tokamak has several systems not included on SPARC. The ARC group within R&D is a growing team that is delivering key scientific and engineering results to push the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of these new enabling technologies higher.
ARC will use a fluoride-based molten salt as the blanket working fluid. This senior R+D engineer will perform pump design and analysis work, fabricate and operate pump test stands, and gather and interpret data. They will also perform a trade-space analysis of possible pump technologies for high temperature, corrosive application to meet requirements,. As the project and team grows, this engineer will be expected to work collaboratively towards the development of various component test flow loops and engage deeply with industry partners towards manufacturing pumps for ARC.
This team member will:
- Plan and execute molten salt pump development campaign
- Design and test prototype pumps to evaluate architectures, head rise, sealing packages, efficiency, lifetime performance, salt compatibility, maintenance requirements, etc
- Interpret and consolidate experimental test data
- Ensure rapid execution of design-build-test-learn cycles and retirement of technical risks
- Help identify external partners and vendors to support and accelerate pump development
- Work collaboratively across an interdisciplinary team in the integration of prototype pump technology into flow loops of various scales
- Communicate results to a broad technical audience in written and oral formats.
The ideal candidate will have most, if not all, of these requirements:
- Minimum 5 year post-baccalaureate experience with pump technology
- Deep knowledge of pump technologies and design trade-offs including hydrodynamics of pumps, pump sizing and conceptual design, rotordynamics, bearing and seal selection, and interpreting data from pump tests
- Experience with pumps from design and development through into manufacturing
- Experience designing pump test stands, testing and validating pump performance
- Hands-on engineering experience with fluid systems and rotating machines
- Great communication and organizational skills
- Strong time management skills
- Self - motivation and autonomy
- Dedication to safety to mitigate hazards that may include molten salt chemical hazards, high temperature, and strong magnetic fields
Additional experience and/or qualifications:
- Graduate degree in an engineering or applied science discipline
- A demonstrated history of participation in or leading the delivery of bespoke hardware systems
- Experience with pumps in extreme environments (e.g. high temperature, extreme chemical requirements, nuclear environment, etc)
- Experience managing technical team of engineers and technicians
- Knowledge of resource estimation and projection
- Perform activities such as standing, and sitting for extended periods of time
- Dedication to safety to mitigate industrial hazards that may include heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead (Pb), high voltage, cryogenics and molten salt
- Willingness to occasionally travel 10% or work required nights/weekends/on-call
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