Senior Thermo-Mechanical Engineer (Power Conversion Systems)

Location: Onsite in Torrance, California, United States. The role supports critical milestones and may require long hours and weekends. Applicants must meet U.S. Government export-control requirements, including U.S. citizenship or national status, lawful permanent residence, refugee or asylee status, or eligibility to obtain the required authorizations.

Salary: $140,000–$185,000 per year, plus a significant stock option package.

Company

hirify.global is a Series C startup developing mass-producible, inherently safe nuclear microreactors for terrestrial, underwater, and space applications.

What you will do

• Own the Power Conversion System thermal management strategy, thermal energy budget, parasitic losses, and cycle-performance relationship.
• Develop heat-rejection and cold-sink architecture, including recuperator sizing and integration against site and ambient conditions.
• Define insulation, heat-loss budgets, surface temperatures, instrumentation, personnel protection, and thermal interfaces.
• Manage thermal transients and requirements across PCS components, the reactor, and safety systems.
• Support test-rig and full-scale hardware testing, place instrumentation, correlate models with measured data, and improve designs.
• Develop inspection, maintenance, and risk-mitigation plans for temperature- and life-limited hardware.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Nuclear, or a related engineering discipline, or 5+ years of experience for the Senior Engineer level.
• Hands-on experience with thermal analysis, hardware design, build, and test, including hand calculations, FEA, or CFD.
• Experience designing high-temperature thermal-management hardware, heat exchangers, heat-rejection paths, insulation systems, or thermal isolation.
• Experience correlating thermal predictions with test data and revising designs based on results.
• Experience owning thermal interfaces or requirements across multiple subsystems.
• Must satisfy U.S. Government export-control eligibility requirements.

Nice to have

• Experience in nuclear, aerospace, automotive, power generation, motorsports, or oil and gas industries.
• Experience with recuperators, dry heat rejection, transient thermal analysis, thermal-mechanical fatigue, creep, or life assessment.
• Experience with ASME BPVC Section III Division 5 or Section VIII Division 2 Part 5.
• Experience with high-temperature metals, nickel superalloys, thermal instrumentation, NDE, and life-limited hardware maintenance planning.
• Experience with ANSYS Mechanical, Femap, NX Thermal, Fluent, Star-CCM+, or commissioning first-of-a-kind hardware.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in an in-person, collaborative environment spanning R&D and production.
• Values include systems thinking, end-user focus, challenging convention, direct engagement with stakeholders, and operating in ambiguity.
• Deep work can be performed from anywhere when appropriate, while teams prioritize working together in person.
• Full-time employment includes a significant stock option package.
• Equal opportunity employment based on merit, competence, and qualifications.