Test Engineer, R&D

Fluidstack

$100K — $120K *
Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in commissioning test stands and instrumentation setups.
  • Proven track record of taking machinery to failure and conducting thorough analysis to determine root causes.
  • Experience with managing uncertainty budgets and measurement accuracy.
  • Familiarity with designing interlocks and safety abort logic for high-risk test environments.
  • Demonstrated ability to challenge design assumptions with empirical data.

Responsibilities

  • Own and oversee the entire compressor performance testing program from initial setup to validation.
  • Design and establish complete test cells, including equipment setup like motor benches and gas loops.
  • Define the measurement process and manage the uncertainty budget for testing outcomes.
  • Create detailed test plans and establish safety protocols for high-risk operations.
  • Provide weekly updates on test outcomes to drive design modifications in real-time.

Benefits

  • Opportunities for professional growth and development within a cutting-edge research environment.
  • Flexible work arrangements to support work-life balance.
  • Access to advanced technology and innovative projects in thermofluids research.
  • Collaborative team atmosphere that values diverse perspectives and ideas.
  • Encouragement to think creatively and challenge existing norms in engineering practices.
Full Job Description
The Thermofluids R&D Team

Examples of key problems the team is working on
  • Reject more than 10 gigawatts of heat, starting now. Fluidstack is targeting 10 GW of compute in 2027 and 30 GW the year after. Every watt of it becomes heat that has to go somewhere, and no cooling team has ever been asked to open at that number rather than grow into it.
  • Design and build the machines, because nobody can supply them. The merchant compressor market cannot deliver at this rate, and the vendor base behind today's chillers will not scale to gigawatts. We are taking compressor and chiller design in house, working on machine architectures nobody sells today, and going from blank sheet to production faster than this industry thinks is possible.
  • Own every thermofluids problem behind the fleet, not just the chiller. Working fluid and cycle architecture, heat exchangers at a scale that dominates the cost of the plant, two-phase heat transfer at the chip, and thermal energy storage. All of it is open, and whatever this team lands gets built thousands of times.
Role Scope
  • Own the test program that takes the compressor from first spin on the stand to a validated performance map the design team can build on.
  • Specify and stand up the test cells from an empty bay: motor test bench, high-pressure gas loop, load bank, and every instrument behind them.
  • Define the measurement chain and the uncertainty budget, so a claimed isentropic efficiency or COP survives scrutiny from outside this company.
  • Write the test plans, interlocks and abort criteria for a machine running at speeds and pressures where a failure is energetic.
  • Turn test data into design changes on a weekly cadence, sitting inside the design loop rather than reporting into it.


What We're Looking For

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.
  • You've commissioned a test stand from a bare bay: instrumentation, calibration, shakedown, first article.
  • You've taken a machine to failure deliberately and had it instrumented well enough to know exactly why it failed.
  • You've owned an uncertainty budget and could tell someone what your measurement was actually worth.
  • You've written interlock and abort logic that kept people safe around stored energy, high pressure or high speed.
  • You've disagreed with a design team about what the data showed, and the data won.
  • You've carried a failure investigation to a root cause that changed the hardware, rather than to a plausible story that closed the paperwork.
  • Bonus: Propulsion and engine test (hot fire, spin pit, green run). Rotating machinery test (compressors, turbines, motor test benches). High-pressure gas loops and pressure-rated test rigs. Data acquisition and rig control (LabVIEW, NI, PLC-based stands). Thermal and refrigeration performance testing (COP mapping, calorimetry).


We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

You will receive a confirmation email once your application has successfully been accepted. If there is an error with your submission and you did not receive a confirmation email, please email [redacted] with your resume/CV, the role you've applied for, and the date you submitted your application-- someone from our recruiting team will be in touch.

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