Thermal Systems Engineer

The posting, as Atmoszero wrote it

AtmosZero is building the next generation of industrial steam infrastructure. Our flagship product, Boiler 2.0, is a modular industrial steam heat pump designed to help manufacturers reduce operational risk, improve flexibility, and modernize steam generation over time. Rather than forcing facilities to choose between reliability and sustainability, AtmosZero enables a practical path toward future-ready steam systems that integrate with existing operations and scale with customer needs.

Why this role exists
Industrial steam runs manufacturing — breweries, dairies, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals — and almost all of it still comes from a boiler design that predates the jet engine. Much of the U.S. fleet is decades past its prime, facing volatile fuel costs, tightening limits on new combustion, and no cheap way to add capacity.
Boiler 2.0 is a modular heat pump that makes steam at up to 185°C from electricity and air alone. Because it moves heat rather than creating it, it returns roughly 2 units of steam energy per unit of electricity, against well under one for combustion. It drops into the old boiler's footprint and scales by adding modules — no stack, no fuel line, no combustion permit. Units are in production now in Loveland, Colorado.
The engineering is unforgiving: high pressure ratios, compressor and refrigerant choices with little precedent at this duty, two-phase heat transfer that must stay predictable across a wide operating envelope. We are taking a working product into volume production, and the thermal architecture set in the next two years will govern every unit after it. You would own a real share of that.
Level and scope
We are hiring one person into this role at whichever of three levels fits your experience. We will calibrate during the interview process — apply once and we will place you.

• Senior Engineer I (5+ years). You own major subsystems end to end — the refrigerant loop, the steam generation side, or the heat exchanger package — from requirements through test and into production.
• Senior Engineer II (8+ years). You own the thermal system architecture for a product line, make the cross-subsystem tradeoffs, and set the test strategy that validates them.
• Principal Engineer (12+ years). You set thermal technical direction across programs, resolve the hardest open questions in the technology roadmap, and grow the judgment of the engineers around you.

If you are between levels or arrived at this expertise by an unusual route, apply anyway.
What you will do
Own thermal system architecture

• Define operating envelopes, control strategies, and system architectures for next-generation Boiler 2.0 products, using modeling, test data, and engineering judgment in roughly equal measure.
• Lead component selection, sizing, and integration across heat exchangers, compressors, valves, pumps, and supporting equipment — including the supplier conversations that make those choices real.
• Own the engineering documentati

[…]
entation and data acquisition for thermal-fluid equipment.

• Fluency with system modeling and analysis tools such as EES, Aspen Plus/HYSYS, MATLAB, Simulink, GT-SUITE, HTRI, or Python.
• Experience producing the documentation that engineering decisions live in: specifications, P&IDs, and test procedures.
• Comfort with the ambiguity and pace of a startup building physical hardware, where the answer is often that nobody has one yet.

What would help
We do not expect anyone to have all of this. The first two are the ones we would most like to see.

• Detailed heat exchanger design, selection, and qualification experience — shell-and-tube, plate-and-frame, brazed plate, or refrigerant heat exchangers — using HTRI or equivalent. Manufacturing exposure is a real plus.
• Experience with industrial heat pumps, refrigeration, ORC, steam systems, turbomachinery, or comparable industrial thermal equipment, ideally at an OEM or supplier.
• Experience developing controls architectures, operating sequences, alarms, and protection strategies for complex systems.
• Experience taking hardware through commercialization and production scale-up.
• Experience leading DFMEA, design reviews, and risk reduction on multidisciplinary programs.
• Experience commissioning and troubleshooting complex thermal systems in the field.
• Experience qualifying engineered components with external suppliers.
• A graduate degree in a relevant field, or patents you helped develop.

Compensation and benefits
Base salary range: Senior Engineer I [$125,000 - $180,000] · Senior Engineer II [$140,000 – $200,000] · Principal Engineer [$165,000 – $220,000]. Where an offer lands within a range depends on experience, demonstrated capability, and interview performance.
Equity: Stock option grant (Level dependent)
Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision coverage; retirement plan and any match; paid time off and holidays; parental leave.

This position reports to the Senior Director, New Product Development.