Description of Position:

Nelumbo is a science and technology company focused on generating advanced materials through surface modification. Nelumbo’s IceNein® product family is an anti-ice coating to increase the efficiency of heat transfer surfaces in HVAC-R systems. IceNein® is applied to the heat exchanger’s surface for applications including refrigerated transportation, stationary heat pumps, industrial refrigeration, and others. Kuraray, a Japanese manufacturer of chemicals, resins, and other functional materials, recently acquired Nelumbo to accelerate the deployment of the technology.

Nelumbo is seeking a full-time Mechanical Test Engineer to join their IceNein® product team, focusing primarily on heat transfer testing that builds product readiness across the company’s cooling-sector focused business line. The position will be on-site at Nelumbo’s HQ in Hayward, CA.

This role will support commercialization of our transportation refrigeration application by owning the design and management of pilot tests conducted with customers, and also support development for other applications by maintaining existing proprietary test platforms and developing new test platforms. These test platforms include small material or component scale laboratory tests, as well as larger system level testing setups.

The ideal candidate would have extensive knowledge of HVAC-R systems, aptitude & interest in both design and hands on fabrication & assembly of test systems, the ability to effectively coordinate and manage third part test providers, and to professionally communicate with customers who are conducting pilot tests of our technology.

Key Responsibilities:

• Run and maintain Nelumbo’s existing heat transfer test systems for material, component, and system level scales
• Developing new heat transfer related test platforms, including automation and data analysis
• Develop test plans for outside test service providers, and manage testing partner relationships
• Design and manage product pilot testing at customer facilities
• Work with product leadership to establish, refine, and deliver customer requirements, and translate these into test metrics
• Mechanical Design & Fabrication of equipment for test platform upgrades/creation, as well as supporting mechanical design activities for production equipment

Desirable Traits:

• Quick Execution
• Attention to detail
• Organizational skills
• Analytical thought process
• Adaptable in a fast-paced work environment
• Team player
• Strong sense of humor
• Self-Starter

Pre-Requisites:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or similar
• Familiarity with fluid flow and heat transfer principles, and laboratory material characterization methods
• Proficiency with any mechanical design software packages (such as AutoCad, SolidWorks, Fusion360, etc.)
• Familiarity with scripting languages (Python, etc.) and automation is a plus
• Experience with HVAC-R system testing is a plus

Nelumbo Background:

Nelumbo is a UC Berkeley spin-out company commercializing advanced materials to increase sustainability in the built environment and consumer goods. Our materials leverage nanoscale features to enhance the surface performance of materials in different environments. This role will support the development of nanostructured materials for primarily polymer based consumer goods.

We are a team of highly motivated engineers and scientists with insatiable curiosities and a strong desire to enable completely new classes of products through novel technologies. The processes to create our materials are multistep immersions in either batch or continuous process lines involving proprietary metal-organic chemistry and are currently being evaluated at commercial manufacturing scale.

For more information, please visit our webpage: www.nelumbo.io