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Cfd Engineer Jobs in Oregon (NOW HIRING)

Panthalassa

Senior Computational Engineer

Portland, OR · On-site

$110K - $152K/yr

About the Job As a Senior Computational Engineer, you will lead and improve the use of high ... You will run and improve CFD workflows using Helyx, OpenFOAM, and/or Star-CCM+, validate optimized ...

Panthalassa

Senior Computational Engineer

Portland, OR

$110K - $152K/yr

About the Job As a Senior Computational Engineer, you will lead and improve the use of high ... You will run and improve CFD workflows using Helyx, OpenFOAM, and/or Star-CCM+, validate optimized ...

Panthalassa

Senior Computational Engineer

Portland, OR · On-site

$110K - $152K/yr

About the Job As a Senior Computational Engineer, you will lead and improve the use of high ... You will run and improve CFD workflows using Helyx, OpenFOAM, and/or Star-CCM+, validate optimized ...

ZincFive

Mechanical Engineer II

Tualatin, OR · On-site

$98K - $110K/yr

The Mechanical Engineer II is responsible for providing mechanical design solutions for nickel-zinc ... Create application-specific CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) models to validate effective heat ...

Panthalassa

Fluid Dynamicist

Portland, OR

$18.25 - $22/hr

You will work with our Principal Fluid Dynamicist and collaborate closely with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), controls, optimization, mechanical engineering, metocean, and fleet performance ...

Panthalassa

Fluid Dynamicist

Portland, OR · On-site

$18.25 - $22/hr

You will work with our Principal Fluid Dynamicist and collaborate closely with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), controls, optimization, mechanical engineering, metocean, and fleet performance ...

Panthalassa

Fluid Dynamicist

Portland, OR · On-site

$18.25 - $22/hr

You will work with our Principal Fluid Dynamicist and collaborate closely with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), controls, optimization, mechanical engineering, metocean, and fleet performance ...

Dudek

Fire Protection Engineer

$140K - $165K/yr

Familiarity with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling for simulating fire, smoke, and gas ... Possess a background in fire protection or mechanical engineering with knowledge of HVAC, ...

SIG Sauer

Design Engineer II

Tualatin, OR · On-site

Design Engineer II SIG SAUER, Inc . is a leading provider and manufacturer of firearms, electro ... Motion, FEA, CFD, Python, Zemax, or other software. * Conduct PLM (product lifecycle management ...

SigSauer

Design Engineer II

Tualatin, OR

Design Engineer II SIG SAUER, Inc . is a leading provider and manufacturer of firearms, electro ... Motion, FEA, CFD, Python, Zemax, or other software. * Conduct PLM (product lifecycle management ...

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All JobsCfd Engineer JobsCfd Engineer Jobs in Oregon

Cfd Engineer information

See Oregon salary details

$11.6K

$98.3K

$139.6K

How much do cfd engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 26, 2026, the average yearly pay for cfd engineer in Oregon is $98,343.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $90,400.00 and $116,300.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is the difference between Cfd Engineer vs Mechanical Engineer?

AspectCfd EngineerMechanical Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related fields; proficiency in CFD softwareBachelor's in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering; often includes CFD knowledge
Work EnvironmentDesign firms, aerospace, automotive, energy sectors; focus on fluid dynamics simulationsManufacturing, product design, HVAC; broader engineering tasks including mechanics and thermodynamics
Industry UsagePrimarily in industries requiring fluid flow analysisWider industry application including structural and thermal systems

While both roles require a background in mechanical engineering and CFD software, Cfd Engineers specialize in fluid dynamics simulations, whereas Mechanical Engineers have a broader scope including mechanics, thermodynamics, and design. Cfd Engineers focus more on computational analysis, while Mechanical Engineers may handle a wider range of engineering tasks.

Are CFD engineers in demand?

CFD engineers are in demand in industries such as aerospace, automotive, and energy, where computational fluid dynamics simulations are essential for product design and optimization. The role often requires proficiency with simulation software like ANSYS or OpenFOAM and a strong background in fluid mechanics and programming. Job growth is driven by increasing reliance on simulation for cost-effective and efficient engineering solutions.

What Is a CFD Engineer?

As a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) engineer, your responsibilities are to use CFD formulas to predict fluid flows and heat transfers. You use software applications such as OpenFOAM or Gerris to compute the finite element method and the finite volume method, which use partial differential equations to create two- or three-dimensional models and simulations. Your job duties include analyzing problems, building models, and proposing solutions. Your experience makes you a valuable part of research and development teams in the mechanical and chemical engineering industries as well as the automobile, aerospace, and aeronautical industries.

What is a CFD engineer?

A CFD engineer specializes in using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to simulate and analyze fluid flow, heat transfer, and related physical phenomena. They typically work with tools like ANSYS or OpenFOAM and require strong skills in physics, mathematics, and programming to optimize designs and solve engineering problems.

What engineer makes $500,000 a year?

Highly experienced engineers in specialized fields such as petroleum, aerospace, or certain senior software engineering roles can earn $500,000 or more annually, often including bonuses and stock options. These positions typically require advanced skills, extensive experience, and often involve leadership or executive responsibilities.

What are CFD Engineers?

CFD Engineers are professionals who specialize in Computational Fluid Dynamics, a field that uses numerical analysis and algorithms to solve and analyze problems involving fluid flows. They use specialized software to simulate how liquids and gases behave under various conditions, which helps in designing and optimizing products like aircraft, cars, and HVAC systems. CFD Engineers typically have a background in engineering, physics, or mathematics and work in industries such as aerospace, automotive, energy, and manufacturing. Their work is essential for improving performance, safety, and efficiency in systems involving fluid movement.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a CFD Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a CFD Engineer, you need a strong background in fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and numerical methods, usually supported by a degree in mechanical, aerospace, or chemical engineering. Expertise in CFD software such as ANSYS Fluent, OpenFOAM, or STAR-CCM+, along with programming skills in Python or MATLAB, is typically required. Attention to detail, problem-solving ability, and clear communication help you interpret complex data and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams. These skills are crucial for delivering accurate simulations, optimizing designs, and supporting engineering decisions in industries where fluid behavior is critical.

What are some common challenges CFD Engineers face when working on complex simulation projects?

CFD Engineers often encounter challenges related to balancing simulation accuracy with computational resources and time constraints. Handling large and intricate geometries can lead to long computation times and may require advanced meshing strategies or high-performance computing. Additionally, accurately modeling boundary conditions and physical phenomena, especially in multiphase or turbulent flows, demands a deep understanding of fluid dynamics and software capabilities. Effective collaboration with design, testing, and product teams is also crucial to validate simulation results and implement practical solutions.

What engineers make $300,000 a year?

Senior engineers in specialized fields such as petroleum, aerospace, or software engineering can earn $300,000 or more annually, especially with extensive experience, advanced skills, and leadership roles. High compensation often involves working in high-demand industries, holding managerial positions, or possessing rare expertise and certifications.
More about Cfd Engineer jobs
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Cfd Engineer jobs near you

Senior Computational Engineer

Panthalassa

Portland, OR • On-site

$110K - $152K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement, PTO

Posted 12 days ago

Job description

About the Company
We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.
The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company's direction on a regular basis.
About the Job
As a Senior Computational Engineer, you will lead and improve the use of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to validate the performance of optimized marine system designs. You will serve as the bridge between fast-running reduced-order simulations, mechanical design, and the CFD team, ensuring that promising optimized geometries and operating strategies are evaluated rigorously before they influence major engineering decisions.
This role is highly technical and highly cross-functional. You will run and improve CFD workflows using Helyx, OpenFOAM, and/or Star-CCM+, validate optimized results against high-fidelity simulations, compare simulation outputs against experimental and sea-trial data, and communicate simulation confidence, assumptions, sensitivities, and validation status. You will be expected to diagnose difficult CFD issues, improve automation pipelines, post-process and visualize complex results, and help establish the standards by which performance claims are validated.
The ideal candidate has deep marine CFD experience, strong first-principles engineering judgment, and the ability to own major technical projects from ambiguous problem statements through validated conclusions. We are especially interested in candidates who can not only use CFD tools, but also improve them through scripting, automation, solver customization, OpenFOAM/Helyx development, or related code development.
Responsibilities
  • Own the CFD-based performance validation process for optimized marine system designs, including geometry preparation, meshing, solver setup, execution, debugging, post-processing, visualization, and reporting.
  • Use Helyx, OpenFOAM, and/or Star-CCM+ to evaluate optimized geometries and operating conditions generated by fast-running time-domain simulation, Boundary Element Method (BEM), and fleet deployment tools.
  • Develop, maintain, and continuously improve CFD validation workflows and automation pipelines with support from other engineers and software developers.
  • Improve robustness, accuracy, and reliability of advanced CFD workflows across complex marine operating conditions, including meshing, solver setup, turbulence modeling, boundary conditions, and post-processing workflows.
  • Evaluate power, propulsion, hydrodynamic loading, device performance, and other key metrics using high-fidelity simulation data.
  • Compare CFD results against reduced-order models, BEM tools, time-domain device simulations, experimental data, sea-trial measurements, and metocean observations.
  • Work directly with data collected from prototype deployments and sea-trial campaigns to improve model fidelity and accelerate deployment readiness.
  • Refine and extend internal validation standards to ensure CFD results are accurate, converged, and physically meaningful for design and operational decision-making.
  • Develop clear visualizations, dashboards, plots, technical memos, and presentations that communicate simulation results, limitations, uncertainties, and recommended actions.
  • Collaborate closely with optimization, controls, mechanical engineering, metocean data, fleet simulation, and experimental teams to close the loop between predicted and measured performance.
  • Contribute to verification and validation of CFD methods using canonical cases, experimental data, sea-trial data, and internal benchmark problems.
  • Run simulation workflows on on-premises and cloud-based HPC systems.
  • Improve team velocity by increasing automation, reducing manual handoffs, documenting best practices, and developing reusable simulation templates.
  • Use modern software and AI-assisted engineering tools to accelerate coding, analysis, documentation, and simulation workflow development while maintaining strong technical judgment and verification discipline.

Required Qualifications
  • Legal authorization to work in the United States.
  • Bachelor's degree in Ocean Engineering, Naval Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a similar field.
  • Strong foundation in fluid mechanics, marine hydrodynamics, rigid body dynamics, and physics-based modeling.
  • Significant experience running end-to-end CFD simulations for real engineering systems.
  • Experience using at least one major RANS-based CFD tool such as Helyx, OpenFOAM, or Star-CCM+.
  • Ability to diagnose and resolve CFD issues involving meshing, boundary conditions, convergence, numerical stability, turbulence modeling, and post-processing.
  • Strong understanding of verification and validation principles, including grid convergence, sensitivity studies, uncertainty, and comparison against experimental or field data.
  • Experience processing, visualizing, and interpreting complex simulation datasets.
  • Working knowledge of Linux environments, scripting workflows, and HPC-based simulation execution.
  • Ability to use first-principles reasoning to determine when simulation results are physically meaningful and when they require further investigation.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical results and limitations to multidisciplinary teams.
  • Demonstrated ability to independently own and drive complex technical projects to completion.

Preferred Qualifications
  • Master's or PhD in Ocean Engineering, Naval Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a similar field.
  • 5+ years of industry or research experience in CFD, marine hydrodynamics, naval architecture, offshore engineering, turbomachinery, propulsion, or related fields.
  • Experience with marine CFD, offshore systems, free-surface flows, multiphase flows, fluid-structure interaction, propulsion, wave-structure interaction, or complex metocean environments.
  • Experience using multiple CFD tools, especially Helyx, OpenFOAM and Star-CCM+.
  • Experience developing or modifying OpenFOAM, Helyx, or other CFD solver capabilities.
  • Experience building CFD automation pipelines, including CAD-to-mesh-to-solve-to-post-processing workflows.
  • Experience with Python, C++, Julia, Java, Bash, or other programming languages used in engineering simulation workflows.
  • Experience comparing simulations to sea-trial data, wave basin data, tow tank data, or other physical test data.
  • Experience working with metocean data, reanalysis datasets, wave spectra, current profiles, wind data, or measured ocean data.
  • Working knowledge of BEM, reduced-order models, time-domain simulation, or optimization workflows.
  • Experience with CAD-to-CFD workflows using tools such as NX, SolidWorks, Rhino, or similar.
  • Experience developing dashboards, automated reports, or visualization tools for simulation results.
  • Experience in startup environments or fast-paced R&D teams; comfortable with ambiguity, proactive in shaping work, and adaptable to change.
  • A record of mentorship, technical documentation, internal training, or leadership in simulation communities.

The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed.
Additional Requirements
  • Occasional extended hours or weekend work to support key milestones, sea trials, fleet operations, or urgent design decisions.
  • Strong preference for candidates based in Portland, Oregon. Exceptional remote candidates will be considered, with regular travel to Portland expected.
  • The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed.

Compensation and Benefits
If hired for this full-time role, you will receive:
  • Cash compensation of $155,000-$200,000.
  • Equity in the company. We're all owners and if we're successful, this equity should be far and away the most valuable component of your compensation.
  • A benefits package that helps you take care of yourself and your family, including:
    • Flexible paid time off
    • Health insurance (the company pays 100% of gold level PPO plan for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
    • Dental insurance (the company pays 100% for full time employees and 100% for their partners and dependents)
    • Vision insurance (the company pays 100% for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
    • Disability insurance (the company pays 100% for a policy to provide long term financial support if you become disabled)
    • Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA
  • Relocation assistance to facilitate your move to Portland (if needed).

Location
Our offices, lab and shop, are located in Portland, Oregon.

Apply