Rotordynamics Engineer

Rotordynamics Engineer - Own the Rotor, Bearing, and Seal System Behind Next-Generation Power Hardware El Segundo, California | On-site Opportunity Summary Join a well-funded, seed-stage energy hardware company building compact, megawatt-scale power systems for fast-growing industrial and compute infrastructure. Hardware is being assembled and tested in a new El Segundo facility, and the team is moving toward full-scale system demonstration. As Rotordynamics Engineer, you will own how the high-speed rotating machinery behaves dynamically, and you will carry that work into the mechanical design of the bearings, seals, and shafts that make the rotor work. This is not an analysis-only seat. You will build the models, put the design in CAD, help build and balance the rotor, and correlate your predictions to test data on real hardware. About Us We are a venture-backed energy technology company redesigning power generation around advanced thermodynamic cycles, high-speed turbomachinery, and factory-built hardware that deploys much faster than conventional infrastructure. Our platform is designed to work with several heat sources, from near-term conventional sources to future nuclear and renewable ones. We are a small, highly technical team with deep turbomachinery, thermofluids, controls, and test experience. Every engineer has a large effect on the product and on how the company is built. Job Duties Own rotordynamic analysis of high-speed turbomachinery, including lateral and torsional critical speeds, Campbell diagrams, mode shapes, unbalance response, and stability margins across startup, steady-state, transient, and shutdown conditions Build, maintain, and refine rotor-bearing-seal models, and update them using test data Select, size, and design bearing systems, including gas foil, hydrodynamic, tilting-pad, rolling-element, or magnetic bearings as the architecture requires, and predict their stiffness, damping, and load capacity Design shaft seals and quantify leakage and seal-induced forces that affect rotor stability Create detailed CAD models and drawings of rotors, shafts, couplings, bearing housings, seal hardware, and thrust-management features, including fits, tolerance stack-ups, and GD&T Partner with aerodynamic and turbomachinery engineers on wheel and impeller attachment, axial thrust balance, and rotor packaging Define balancing requirements, runout specifications, and assembly procedures for rotor builds Specify vibration instrumentation (proximity probes, accelerometers, speed and phase references, bearing temperatures), and work with controls engineers to set alarm and trip limits Support spin testing, rig testing, and full-system testing, and use orbit, waterfall, and Bode data to diagnose and fix vibration issues Work with suppliers on fabrication, inspection, and balancing of bearings, seals, and rotor components Establish rotordynamics design standards, analysis methods, and design review practices as the company grows Contribute to broader turbomachinery mechanical design, assembly, and test work as program needs change Qualifications Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field 5+ years of experience in rotordynamics and/or bearing and seal design for high-speed rotating machinery such as gas turbines, compressors, turbopumps, turboexpanders, turbochargers, microturbines, or high-speed motors and generators Hands-on experience with rotordynamics software such as XLTRC², DyRoBeS, ARMD, MADYN, ANSYS, or similar Strong fundamentals in vibrations, structural dynamics, tribology, and fluid-film or gas lubrication Ability to build detailed CAD models and drawings yourself in Onshape, NX, Creo, SolidWorks, CATIA, or similar Experience taking rotating hardware from analysis through build, balance, and test Experience reading vibration test data and updating models to match it Strong technical communication and comfort working with a lot of ownership on a small, hands-on team Preferred Experience Gas foil bearings or other oil-free bearing systems Supercritical CO₂, real-gas, or high-pressuredense-fluid turbomachinery Labyrinth, brush, or dry gas seals, including seal rotordynamic coefficients High-speed integrated permanent-magnet motor or generator rotors Familiarity with API 617 and API 684 rotordynamic practices Rotor assembly, balance machine, or spin pit experience Graduate research in rotordynamics, tribology, or turbomachinery FEA of rotating components, including stress, fits, and thermal growth Early-stage startup or rapid hardware development experience Why Join Us Own a technically critical subsystem that directly sets machine reliability, speed, and performance Work across analysis, CAD, hardware, and test instead of working only as an analyst Work directly with the founding team and experienced turbomachinery engineers Join at the point where first-of-its-kind hardware is moving into larger systems and customer deployment Meaningful equity ownership Company-sponsored medical, dental, and vision insurance Fully stocked kitchen with snacks, coffee, and lunch Compensation Details $170,000 - $230,000 + strong equity and sign-on bonus #J-18808-Ljbffr Approach Venture LLC