Heat Transfer Research Scientist

Leidos is seeking and exceptional and motivated Research Scientist interested in pursuing their passion by working side-by-side with world experts through a research appointment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), in Morgantown, WV.

In this role, you will work as part of DOE’s leading engineering Research & Development laboratory team supporting NETL to pursue cutting-edge research that will design, conduct, and analyze gas turbine combustor and blade and vane cooling experiments at NETL to evaluate cooling geometries and develop correlations. Specific applications include hydrogen and ammonia-fueled turbines, pressure gain combustion, and sCO2 power cycles. The incumbent will support test design and data analysis with CFD analysis. The incumbent will work in a team of NETL researchers whose responsibilities include: applying CFD tools such as Fluent, OpenFOAM, as well as chemical kinetic codes such as Cantera to assess combustor technology needs for direct-fired CO2 cycles; assessing issues such as flame-holding, injector design, wall cooling, combustion dynamics, fuel flexibility (syngas and natural gas), and pressure effects on chemistry; identifying specific heat transfer features for testing; assessing test article type (flat plate versus air foil) to enable collection of accurate and reliable test data; and designing modifications to the test rig to support specific test objectives. The incumbent is expected to disseminate the research by preparing and presenting technical papers and reports.

What this opportunity with Leidos supporting NETL uniquely provides you:

• Working on applied, cutting-edge projects with global impact while being mentored by the nation’s leading energy scientists and engineers.
• Real-world experience supplemented with technical development and discussions that provide unique insight into the broad range of mission critical engineering and scientific disciplines NETL leverages to support national energy research and policy development.
• Unique access to world-class, customized facilities specific to high impact energy research, technology generation, and patent development.

Responsibilities are functional in nature and performed under supervision. Specific tasks include, but are not limited to:

• Responsible for meeting task requirements of NETL and LRST managers in attaining goals established for the NETL Turbines/sCO2 team and RIC programs
• Responsible for providing R&D technical support for the NETL Turbines/sCO2 team.
• Responsible for assisting the Turbines/sCO2 team on Designing and conducting oxy-combustion experiments; analyzing experimental data and publishing results.
• Presenting technical findings during regular team meetings as well as workshops
• Active participation in group meetings of the Turbines/sCO2 team, well as other task related meetings
• Analyzing experimental data from laboratory tests and published data from other authors.
• Assisting in the preparation of technical papers, reports, conference papers, and annual and quarterly reports.
• Presenting the results of the research at technical conferences and publishing in archival journals.

Requirements:

• Master’s degree in physics, mechanical engineering or a closely related field with 4+ years’ related experience.
• Relevant experience in a combination of the following: Heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and combustion; Experience with instrumentation for measurement of flow rates, pressures, temperatures, and chemical species; Experience with designing & conducting experiments, Experience with analysis and reduction of experimental data; Experience in numerical simulation with an emphasis on heat transfer and combustion; operational experience with gaseous combustion systems.
• Ability to plan months in advance to conform to Laboratory-wide policies: including procurement, work orders, environmental safety and health, export regulations, travel, publications, and data release.
• Ability to work independently as well with a team of researchers. Skilled in approaching the problem with the help of existing scholarly articles and/or simulation driven design to arrive at solutions.
• Ability to collaborate effectively and provide support to a multidisciplinary/multi-organization team of co-investigators from diverse disciplines. Present design ideas and findings succinctly and provide assistance to obtain solutions during the process.
• Skilled in evaluation of experimental data obtained from combustion experiments.
• Ability to evaluate heat transfer.
• Application of numerical methods such as finite difference or finite elements to evaluate heat fluxes on combustor.
• Experience in advanced manufacturing technologies
• Demonstrated proficiency in the writing of scholarly publications
• Demonstrated proficiency in collaborating technical findings with external research organizations such as research laboratories and/or academic institutions
• Ability to document and present research results, including using power point presentations and making podium presentations at technical meetings.
• Ability to work effectively with other research personnel sharing the laboratories to maintain good housekeeping and safe operations.
• Must be able to meet the requirements for gaining access to work on the NETL campus.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD in physics, mechanical engineering or a closely related field.
• Basic knowledge of operation of test facilities to evaluate the performance of a sCO2 oxy-combustor.
• Ability to evaluate combustion dynamics using techniques such as chemiluminescence and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). Ability to calibrate and operate pollutant characterization systems such as gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy.
• Ability to apply available software packages:
  • Autodesk Inventor or any equivalent CAD software
  • Ansys – Fluent, Workbench or any equivalent CFD software
  • Python or any equivalent programming language
  • Chemkin, Canterra, or other reduced-order combustion kinetics analysis tool.

Salary Range for this position: $100K to $105K

We’re not looking for perfectly polished resumes or perfect fits. We’re looking for people who break limits, ask hard questions, and don’t wait to be told what’s next. At Leidos, we’re not following the roadmap — we’re redrawing it. 

Original Posting:

November 10, 2025

Pay Range:

Pay Range $85,150.00 - $153,925.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.