Senior CFD Engineer (General Fluids)
- Full-time
- Department: Product Management
Company Description
About Us
Fortune Brands began its journey as a publicly traded company (NYSE: FBHS or “Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.”) in 2011, as a successful spin-off from Fortune Brands, Inc. Since then, we have grown organically and through acquisitions, and have delivered strong financial performance. We have also proven our resilience and execution excellence. We outperformed and expanded in our categories through the housing market recovery, and executed our strategies through global disruptions, while refining our portfolio for the future.
On December 14, 2022, we completed the separation of our Cabinets business, enabling us to pursue our unique and exciting path for accelerating growth and productivity.
Today, we are a new company: Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: FBIN). We are focused on driving our brand, innovation and channel leadership, and winning in supercharged categories.
Job Description
As a Senior CFD Engineer, you will play a critical role in transforming how we validate fluid performance across our product portfolio—digitally. Your expertise in water flow, pressure systems, and leakage analysis will help us replace physical testing with predictive simulations, accelerating product development and improving design quality. You’ll work closely with product engineers, lab technicians, and data scientists to simulate and correlate fluid behavior in faucets, seals, and valves. Your work will directly support the launch of innovative products while contributing to our goal of reducing physical testing by 80% and improving validation lead time by 50%.
• Own the fluid simulation domain, developing reusable CFD templates and playbooks for water-based systems.
• Simulate internal flows, pressure drops, and leak paths in faucets, valves, seals, and polymer components.
• Correlate virtual results with physical tests, achieving high accuracy in flow rate, pressure, and leakage metrics.
• Calibrate fluid models using lab data and integrate material properties for metals, polymers, and composites.
• Automate CFD workflows using Python and Fluent, enabling scalable meshing, parametric sweeps, and post-processing.
• Integrate AI/ML techniques to:
- Build surrogate models for rapid design screening.
- Apply active learning to reduce the number of physical tests.
- Support uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis.
• Collaborate with lab technicians to ensure high-quality instrumentation and data acquisition for model validation.
• Contribute to simulation governance, including credibility reports, correlation matrices, and KPI dashboards.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote best practices in fluid simulation and digital validation.
• Bring a creative, curious, and collaborative mindset to a fast-paced, innovation-driven environment.
Qualifications
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Fluid Mechanics, or a related field from an accredited institution.
• Minimum of 5–8 years of experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), with a strong focus on internal flows, leakage, and pressure-driven systems.
• Proven expertise in simulating water flow, pressure drop, and leak paths in consumer hardware products such as faucets, valves, and seals.
• Proficiency in CFD tools such as Ansys Fluent. • Strong understanding of turbulence modeling, multiphase flow, and conjugate heat transfer.
• Ability to build and manage parametric models for design optimization and performance-to-cost analysis.
• Proficiency in Python for automating simulation workflows, including meshing, parametric sweeps, and post-processing.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams including lab technicians, product engineers, and data analysts.
• Strong documentation skills contribute to simulation playbooks, credibility reports, and correlation matrices.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering, Fluid Dynamics, or a related discipline.
• Proven experience in simulating water systems, including faucets, valves, seals, and O-rings, with a focus on leak path prediction and pressure-flow optimization.
• Deep understanding of multiphase flow, cavitation, and fluid-structure interaction in consumer hardware applications.
• Experience correlating CFD results with real-world lab tests, including flow rate, pressure drop, and leakage detection.
• Familiarity with accelerated environmental testing (e.g., humidity, corrosion) and its impact on fluid performance.
• Proficiency in Python-based automation for CFD workflows, including mesh generation, parametric sweeps, and post-processing.
• Experience integrating AI/ML models into simulation pipelines: • Building surrogate models for rapid design screening.
• Applying active learning to reduce physical test requirements.
• Supporting uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis.
• Knowledge of model validation frameworks (e.g., ASME V&V, NASA-style credibility reports).
• Ability to contribute to simulation playbooks, correlation matrices, and credibility documentation.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, especially with lab technicians, product engineers, and data analysts.