Staff Thermal Simulation Engineer at Form Energy — Berkeley, CA

Role Description

As a Staff Simulation Engineer specializing in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Thermal Systems, you will play a critical role in bringing Form Energy's multi-day energy storage systems from R&D and pilot stages to full-scale commercial utility deployment. You will own the thermal-fluid architectural strategy, physics-based modeling framework, and multi-scale simulation methodologies for our 100-hour iron-air battery systems. Resolving complex, multi-variable issues across electrical, mechanical, and electrochemical boundaries, you will establish the predictive modeling standards required to ensure the ultimate safety, durability, and commercial readiness of our technology. Your technical leadership will directly enable the optimization of system-level thermal management architectures, ensuring predictable operation and long-term grid stability. Relocation assistance is available.

What you'll do

• Architect high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and transient thermal modeling strategies across multiple physical scales, spanning from micro-scale electrochemical cell fields to macro-scale containerized systems.
• Validate and anchor numerical physics-based models against empirical data, collaborating with test and instrumentation teams to close the gap between simulation and physical testing.
• Own the development of automated simulation and optimization workflows to systematically evaluate fluid routing, pressure drops, and cooling loop efficiencies.
• Partner with electrochemical, mechanical, and power electronics teams to resolve complex, multi-factor thermal-fluid anomalies during product integration.
• Suggest and exercise judgment in selecting simulation methodologies, mesh structures, and boundary condition assumptions to proactively identify hot spots and thermal risks.
• Drive the standardization of internal modeling workflows and establish rigorous peer design reviews to ensure technical simulation excellence.
• Model initiative by identifying limitations in our physics-based toolsets and building customized, robust tools to eliminate engineering development blocks.

What you'll bring:

• Experience with a Bachelor's degree and 8+ years of related work experience, or a Master's degree and multiple years of experience, or a PhD with deep focus on thermal-fluid sciences and some industry experience.
• Deep technical expertise in commercial computational fluid dynamics codes and meshing software, such as Ansys Fluent, Star-CCM+, or Comsol Multiphysics.
• Strong foundational knowledge of conjugate heat transfer, fluid dynamics, multiphase flow, and closed-loop cooling systems.
• Applied experience using scripting languages like Python or MATLAB to post-process, visualize, and automate massive multi-physics datasets.
• Demonstrated track record of translating complex simulation results into actionable, physical system-level requirements that guide design decisions.
• Ability to build formal networks outside your immediate area of expertise to achieve technical alignment on multi-variable design trade-offs.
• Intellectual curiosity that drives a continuous pursuit of understanding novel, complex physical phenomena from the microscale to complete grid integration.
• Pragmatic problem-solving skills to navigate design ambiguity and balance modeling fidelity with rapid execution speed.
• Thriving on complexity and enjoying the challenge of decomposing abstract, highly integrated physical problems into clean, high-performing thermal systems.

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