R&D Thermal Fluids Engineer

The shipping industry accounts for ~3% of global CO2 emissions. If it were a country, it would rank above Germany (the 6th largest emitter in the world).
Currently, there’s no solution for ships to go 100% clean. Alternative power sources like hydrogen, ammonia, and onboard batteries are still 10-20 years away from maturity for large ships.

About Seabound

Seabound captures CO2 emissions from ships.
We are building a retrofittable device that traps the CO2 from a ship’s exhaust gas. It has the potential to be one of the simplest, safest, and most affordable solutions for zero-emissions shipping.
In 2022, we proved the concept on land and secured 6 LOIs (Letters of Intent) from major shipowners to purchase our systems from 2024 onwards. In the next 6 months, we will develop and demonstrate our first capture unit at sea. We are now recruiting a Thermal Fluids Engineer to join our founding team to help realize and demonstrate this new category of maritime climate tech.

Roles and responsibilities

As a R&D Thermal Fluids Engineer, you will be the resident expert developing thermal and fluid models, performing analyses and driving optimization of our carbon capture systems and processes. We will rely on you to set the standard for analysis techniques and improve test methodologies within Seabound, solving the toughest thermal, fluids and reaction engineering challenges along the way. Your work will directly prevent greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere and be instrumental in decarbonizing the shipping industry.
What You’ll Do:
- Perform analytical thermal fluid and chemical calculations to size and design reacting fluid systems using a variety of approaches (hand calcs, simple programs, network solvers, CFD models, process simulation software etc)
- Sizing and design of systems, including conducting trade studies, designing/selecting components, developing P&IDs, setting test objectives and analyzing data
- Participate in hands on testing of our first-of-its-kind carbon capture machine to anchor models with real world data
- Analyze complex problems like turbulent internal flows, heat transfer, mass transport and solid-gas reaction kinetics in a packed bed reactor. 
- Develop tools to improve the team’s analysis capabilities and streamline workflows
- Collaborate closely with other engineers on the team; contribute to growing and building a strong engineering culture and team
- Anything else that needs to be done in an early-stage startup

Skills and requirements

We are looking for:
- Degree in mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, aerospace engineering or related discipline (preferably a PhD, but we will consider strong candidates without one)
- Strong engineering fundamentals in fluids, thermodynamics, heat transfer and chemistry
- Experience with fluid and thermal modeling tools for analyzing internal flows
- Familiarity with Python, MATLAB and/or C++
- Hands-on experience building and testing real world systems
- Someone who is resourceful, ambitious, excited to tackle hard problems that no one has solved before and holds themselves and others to a high standard 
- Someone who is passionate about decarbonizing the shipping industry and tackling the climate crisis 
- Ability to operate effectively with high degrees of uncertainty and to execute on tasks against tight timelines and aggressive schedules
- (Bonus but not required) rotary or shaft kiln design/analysis experience
- (Bonus but not required) experience using Aspen Plus or similar process modeling software
- (Bonus but not required) experience leading the development of a new hardware product/technology
- (Bonus but not required) experience owning significant responsibility in a fast-paced working environment