Mechanical Engineer, Innovation

Summary/Primary Role:

This role is the go-to engineering resource for geothermal innovation at Brightcore, sitting within the Geothermal business unit. This person owns the engineering analysis behind the Innovation roadmap — evaluating new geothermal products and services at every stage of development, from first-light technical feasibility and customer value proposition work, through prototyping and experimentation, to go-to-market testing and full product rollout and scale-up. The role spans multiple concurrent roadmap items at different points in the development chain, unified by rigorous engineering analysis of novel approaches to geothermal heating and cooling. 

Principal Duties & Responsibilities:

(Management may amend or assign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time)

Geothermal Innovation Engineering 

• Design innovative geothermal heating and cooling solutions, evaluating detailed HVAC, fluid flow, and geothermal modeling for novel approaches.
• Analyze heat transfer and fluid dynamics, and evaluate the performance and efficiency of heat pumps, boilers, chillers, and related HVAC equipment.
• Serve as the go-to technical resource across the Innovation team for geothermal engineering questions.

Technical Feasibility & Concept Development 

• Evaluate technical feasibility and customer value proposition for new geothermal innovation roadmap items, from first-light concepts through detailed design.
• Develop techno-economic analyses (TEA) and initial design concepts for novel geothermal products and services.

Prototyping & Experimentation 

• Lead prototyping efforts spanning desktop TEA models and lab-based physical prototypes to validate new solutions.
• Design and run experiments on existing systems to generate performance data and test hypotheses.

Product Development & Go-to-Market Support 

• Translate engineering analysis into product requirement documents (PRDs) for engineering, product, and business development teams.
• Create go-to-market test materials and technical collateral supporting customer-facing pilots.
• Support initial customer engagements and full product rollout and scale-up as roadmap items mature into commercial offerings.

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Partner with the Brightcore EDGE monitoring team, BCE Design engineering, and business development across the innovation pipeline.
• Prepare drawings, calculations, and study drafts for review by licensed professional engineers 
• All other duties and projects as assigned.

Qualifications:

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or related field.

• 3–5 years in HVAC, data center design & operation, hydronic, geothermal, or mission-critical mechanical design and analysis.

• Strong grounding in heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics; comfort reasoning through equipment performance metrics (COP, EER, approach temperatures, heat transfer rates).

• Working proficiency with energy/load modeling tools (e.g., TRNSYS, EnergyPlus, HAP, or equivalent) and Excel-based engineering models.

• Ability to carry ambiguous concept work — from first-light feasibility through prototype to product requirement — to a defensible, documented result without heavy supervision.

• Fluent with AI tools.
• Ability to do basic coding in python, or quickly come up the learning curve.

Supervisory Responsibility: 

• This position does not have supervisory responsibility.

Expected Hours of Work & Compensation: 

An employee is expected to work a minimum of forty (40) hours per week. Non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay in accordance with applicable wage and hour laws, while exempt employees may be required to work additional hours as necessary to fulfill their job responsibilities. Overtime requirements will be determined based on the operational needs of the organization. The salary range and/or hourly rate listed is a good faith determination of potential base compensation that may be offered to a successful applicant for this position at the time of this job advertisement and may be modified in the future. When determining an employee’s base salary and/or rate, several factors may be considered as applicable (e.g., location, specialty, years of relevant experience, education, credentials, and internal equity). Brightcore also offers a comprehensive set of benefits to complement the base salary. The base annual salary range for this position is $100,000-$130,000 and is eligible for an annual performance-based bonus.

Travel Requirements:  

• Office presence required at least three (3) days per week, unless otherwise agreed upon with final approval by direct supervisor.
• No additional travel required.

Work Environment:

• Office setting.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• This is not a safety sensitive position.