Senior Rotating Equipment Engineer

About Talus

Talus' mission is to realize humanity's sustainable future by improving access to food and fuel for all. We achieve this by producing green ammonia -- the fundamental component of all synthetic fertilizers -- using renewable electricity, water, and air.

We're building a distributed network of modular green ammonia systems globally, offering reliable, carbon-free ammonia to our partners at a fraction of the current market price. Our first system is operational in Kenya, and we aim to expand our platform to enhance access to locally produced renewable energy and alternative fuels worldwide.

Senior Rotating Equipment Engineer

We are seeking a Senior Rotating Equipment Engineer to own the compressors and pumps in our modular green ammonia systems, from process requirements and datasheets through procurement, packaging, factory testing, commissioning, and long-term reliability in the field. You will report to our Senior Mechanical Engineer.

Hydrogen and nitrogen compression sits on the critical path of plant availability, and this role exists to make those packages the most reliable part of the plant. You will start alongside an external compressor specialist retained for our next-generation system, and we expect you to take full ownership of the scope as that engagement concludes. This role is fully remote and open to candidates anywhere with strong English.

Key Responsibilities

• Requirements and datasheets: Translate process duty into a compressor specification and datasheet you can defend line by line, with every requirement traceable to a stated duty. Flow, suction and discharge conditions, gas composition, moisture, turndown and load-following behavior set the stage count, capacity control philosophy, driver, cooling and sealing requirements.

• Technology selection: Assess compressor types for each service, including reciprocating, diaphragm, screw, centrifugal and integrally geared, record why the selected type suits hydrogen, nitrogen and syngas duty at our scale, and draw a clear line between a specified standard package and a custom machine.

• RFQ and procurement: Build and issue an RFQ package that is complete and technology-neutral when it goes out, covering specification, datasheets, scope of supply, standards, documentation, testing requirements, the inspection and test plan, spares and guarantees, then run the vendor clarification rounds and close out deviations before award.

• Bid evaluation: Produce the technical bid tabulation, normalize offers to a common scope, expose gaps and exclusions, and recommend an award on documented grounds that weigh guaranteed power and performance, wear-part life, availability, maintainability and spares alongside price and delivery.

• Package engineering: Review and challenge everything the vendor supplies around the machine, from pulsation and mechanical response studies, torsional analysis, lube and seal systems, coolers, drivers and couplings, valves and unloaders, distance pieces and vent and purge arrangements through to machinery protection and instrumentation, baseplate and skid structure, and the piping and utility interfaces to our system.

• Maintainability: Settle removal envelopes, lifting provisions and maintenance access during design, so a machine and its auxiliaries can be worked on in place on a modular skid.

• Reliability and spares: Fix the criticality, sparing philosophy, condition-monitoring basis and maintenance intervals for every machine before it ships, covering wear parts and their expected life, capital and insurance spares, and preservation and storage requirements. Build the failure-mode picture for each package and design the monitoring around it.

• Factory testing: Define and witness factory acceptance and performance testing, including string and mechanical running tests where the duty warrants them, and hold vendors to the inspection and test plan.

• Commissioning and start-up: Support receipt, installation, alignment, flushing and pre-commissioning at site, then no-load and loaded running, performance verification and punch-list closure, and confirm the spares and documentation are on site before the plant needs them.

• Field troubleshooting: Diagnose problems on running machines, including valve, ring and packing life, leakage, vibration, capacity and efficiency loss, lube and cooling faults, and control and unloading behavior, then close each one out at root cause so the packages hold their availability target.

• Other rotating equipment: Carry the same ownership for pumps, blowers, fans and other rotating equipment on the system, including selection, sealing, NPSH and system curve verification, and reliability in service.

• Standards and knowledge transfer: Take the rotating equipment scope in-house as the external specialist support ends, and fold what each package teaches us into our specifications, datasheet templates, review checklists and sparing standards so the next system starts from what this one proved.

Required Qualifications

We expect most of the below (if you don't have all, we still encourage you to reach out):

• Strong commitment to the Talus mission and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven startup environment.

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.

• 10 to 15 years in rotating equipment or machinery engineering, most of it on compressors in process plant service.

• You have taken at least two packaged compressor trains through the full cycle yourself, from specification and RFQ through bid evaluation, package review, factory testing and commissioning, and into steady operation. We are looking for the whole cycle.

• You have evaluated competing compressor offers on lifecycle terms, weighing guaranteed power, wear-part life, spares and maintenance burden against capital price, and you can show where that changed an award.

• Working command of the compressor standards, and the judgment to say which one governs a given duty and why. API 618 and API 11P / ISO 13631 for reciprocating machines, API 617 for centrifugal and integrally geared, API 619 for rotary screw, with API 682, API 614, API 670 and API 686 for seals, lube systems, machinery protection and installation.

• You can write a compressor datasheet from process data and defend every line of it, and you can read a vendor's pulsation, mechanical response or rotordynamic study critically.

• Experience in light or low-molecular-weight gas service such as hydrogen, syngas or helium, and a working understanding of how that service constrains machine selection.

• Applied reliability practice, covering criticality assessment, failure mode analysis, sparing and wear-part strategy, condition monitoring, and root cause analysis carried to closure.

• You have witnessed factory testing, commissioned machines, and troubleshot equipment that was already running and already causing problems.

• Experience with centrifugal and positive displacement pumps and their sealing systems, to API 610, ANSI/HI or equivalent.

• Able to hold vendors and packagers you do not manage to schedule and quality, across time zones and cultures.

• Able to make sound engineering decisions with incomplete information and adjust as priorities shift.

• Communicate clearly in writing to leadership and work effectively across cultures with site teams; you enjoy coaching others and building capability in the people around you.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ammonia synthesis loop, hydrogen plant, air separation or refinery hydrogen service experience.

• Non-lubricated reciprocating or diaphragm compressors in hydrogen service, including valve, ring and packing life management.

• Time on the supply side of the business, at a compressor OEM, a packager, or an aftermarket and overhaul organization.

• Compression on skid-mounted or modular plant, where footprint, removal envelope and maintenance access are hard constraints.

• Machinery protection and monitoring to API 670, including rod drop and rod reversal monitoring on reciprocating machines.

• Availability or RAM modeling used to set sparing and redundancy decisions.

• Participation in HAZOP and LOPA studies.

• Experience working within an ISO 9001 or similar quality management system.

• Experience with CE marking of pressure equipment under the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED), and with ATEX or IECEx equipment in hazardous areas.

• Hands-on experience at project or plant sites in emerging markets.

• Building out a maintenance program or CMMS content for new equipment.

Job Working Conditions

• Fully remote, open to candidates in any location with strong written and spoken English.

• Up to 50% travel, including international travel to operating sites, project sites, and vendor and fabricator facilities.

If you're ready to join our team, please send your resume/CV to careers@talusag.com