Innovationeer - Thermal Systems & Heat Transfer Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Love thermodynamics? Fluid mechanics? Making heat go exactly where you want it? We need an ace.

Welcome to Ghost Founder, the "Start-Up Grind For Hire" that's looking to hire!

We're looking for an exceptional engineer who lives and breathes heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and thermal systems. Someone who gets genuinely excited about pumps, heat exchangers, coolant loops, and figuring out how to squeeze another 10% of performance out of a system.

If that sounds like your kind of fun, keep reading.

Who Is Ghost Founder?

At Ghost Founder, our brand promise is BREAKTHROUGHS, FAST!

We help visionary companies turn ambitious ideas into working products, often at a pace that traditional engineering organizations simply can't match.

Our philosophy is simple: Find exceptionally talented people, give them interesting and difficult problems, remove unnecessary bureaucracy, and let them do what they love.

We believe great engineers do their best work when they're in flow state: solving problems, designing, experimenting, building, and learning.

No endless meetings. No corporate theater. Just meaningful engineering work with a talented team.

The Mission: "Waterheater" (codename)

We're working with Waterheater to rethink what happens to the enormous amounts of heat generated by computing.

Instead of throwing that energy away, we're putting it to work.

On the residential side , we're redesigning "Alpha", a system that captures waste heat from high-performance computers and puts it to useful work heating domestic water.

We're developing custom GPU water blocks, thermosiphon systems, and increasingly sophisticated thermal management solutions. There are fascinating challenges involving thermal resistance, fluid flow, pressure, materials, and controls.

On the commercial side , we're developing computing infrastructure ranging from 100 kW to 1 MW, where waste heat is recovered and repurposed for applications such as domestic hot water production in hotels and commercial buildings.

We're integrating computing hardware, heat recovery units, coolant distribution units, pumps, filters, valves, sensors, and heat exchangers into real-world systems that need to perform reliably and efficiently.

And that's where you come in.

Who We're Looking For

You're a mechanical, thermal, or chemical engineer with a particularly strong understanding of heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics .

Not just someone who passed the classes. Someone who actually understands the physics and enjoys applying it.

You're the kind of person who can look at a thermal system, sketch a control volume, calculate its expected performance, identify the bottlenecks, and then head into the shop to find out whether your assumptions were right.

You enjoy the challenge of making systems more efficient, less expensive, more reliable, and easier to manufacture.

And you don't mind getting wet when the plumbing doesn't cooperate.

Requirements

• Deep understanding of heat transfer: Conduction, convection, thermal resistance, heat exchanger design, and thermal system performance.
• Strong fluid mechanics fundamentals: Pressure drops, pump curves, flow distribution, pipe sizing, hydraulic resistance, and system balancing.
• Practical thermal system design: Experience designing, building, or optimizing liquid cooling, heating, or heat recovery systems.
• Excellent engineering intuition: Ability to combine calculations, simulations, and practical experience to make sound design decisions.
• Strong CAD skills: Comfortable creating 3D models, assemblies, and 2D manufacturing drawings in SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Inventor, Onshape, or similar.
• Hands-on problem solving: You can build test rigs, instrument systems, troubleshoot problems, and validate performance through experiments.
• System-level thinking: You understand how pumps, valves, filters, heat exchangers, controls, and sensors interact.
• Engineering judgment: You know when to calculate, when to simulate, when to prototype, and when to stop optimizing and ship.

An engineering degree is strongly preferred, but demonstrable expertise and real-world accomplishments matter more than credentials.

Bonus Abilities

• Experience with liquid cooling of high-performance computing systems, GPUs, or data centers
• Heat exchanger selection, sizing, and optimization
• Thermosiphons, natural convection, and passive circulation systems
• HVAC, hydronic heating, heat pumps, or domestic hot water systems
• CFD, thermal simulation, or engineering tools such as ANSYS, COMSOL, or similar
• Control systems, PLCs, sensors, and instrumentation
• Potable-water system design, materials compatibility, and pressure-rated components
• Design for manufacturing, cost reduction, and supplier collaboration

You don't need to know all of these. But you should be excited to learn the ones you don't.

How You Work

This is just as important as your technical abilities.

You genuinely love engineering. You enjoy working, building, experimenting, and figuring things out. Nobody needs to manufacture motivation for you.

You take ownership. You're comfortable being given a difficult problem and figuring out the best way forward without someone holding your hand.

You move fast without being careless. You understand that progress comes from making decisions, testing assumptions, and learning from results.

You're honest about progress and failure. Our clients are partners in the engineering process. You can confidently explain what worked, what didn't, what you learned, and what happens next.

You document your work. We use a short, structured daily reporting format. You can communicate what you accomplished, what you discovered, and where you're stuck without writing a novel.

You have low ego and high standards. You're happy to change your mind when the data proves you wrong.

A Typical Day at Ghost Founder

You'll join our 15-minute daily huddle, align on priorities, and then spend most of your day doing actual engineering.

One day you might be calculating heat exchanger performance for a 500 kW installation. The next, designing a custom GPU water block, testing a thermosiphon prototype, or troubleshooting an unexpected pressure drop in a coolant loop.

You'll have the freedom to propose solutions, make design decisions, build prototypes, and work directly with a talented team.

We don't expect you to know everything.

We do expect you to figure things out and get things done .

The Goods

• Competitive compensation
• Flexible working arrangements depending on project needs
• Paid time off
• Direct access to leadership and decision-makers
• Very few meetings and very little bureaucracy
• Real responsibility and ownership over engineering decisions
• The opportunity to help build an entirely new category of energy-efficient computing infrastructure
• A work environment designed to let talented people spend their time doing what they love

Join The Grind

Think you're our thermal engineering ace?

Show us examples of things you've designed, built, analyzed, or improved.

We especially love seeing real engineering work: CAD models, prototypes, test rigs, calculations, experiments, and systems you've brought to life.

Tell us about a difficult thermal or fluid mechanics problem you solved. What was the challenge? What did you try? What worked? What didn't?

A résumé is welcome, but evidence of your engineering ability is far more interesting to us than a list of job titles .

Generic applications won't get very far. Show us what makes you an Innovationeer.

\nCompany Description

Who Is Ghost Founder
At Ghost Founder, we believe in the power of speed, innovation, and partnership. Our brand promise is BREAKTHROUGHS, FAST! Our mission is to help visionary leaders in Fortune 500 companies turn their boldest ideas into reality, with speed, accuracy, and creativity. We are the proof-of-concept prototyping experts, the ones who can bring your wildest ideas to life, in record time.

We know that the road from idea to execution can be long, winding, and treacherous. That's why we have assembled a team of seasoned engineers, designers, and problem-solvers who thrive on challenge, ambiguity, and complexity. We don't just build prototypes, we solve problems. We don't just create assets, we inspire action. We don't just work for our clients, we work with them, as trusted partners and advisors.

Company Description

Who Is Ghost Founder\r\nAt Ghost Founder, we believe in the power of speed, innovation, and partnership. Our brand promise is BREAKTHROUGHS, FAST! Our mission is to help visionary leaders in Fortune 500 companies turn their boldest ideas into reality, with speed, accuracy, and creativity. We are the proof-of-concept prototyping experts, the ones who can bring your wildest ideas to life, in record time.\r\n\r\nWe know that the road from idea to execution can be long, winding, and treacherous. That's why we have assembled a team of seasoned engineers, designers, and problem-solvers who thrive on challenge, ambiguity, and complexity. We don't just build prototypes, we solve problems. We don't just create assets, we inspire action. We don't just work for our clients, we work with them, as trusted partners and advisors.