Electrochemical Stack Design Engineer

CURA is a Canadian climate technology company working to change how one of the world’s most essential materials is made. Cement is responsible for approximately 8% of global CO₂ emissions. Our mission is to eliminate those emissions by becoming the default technology for cement production everywhere.

Our electrochemical process splits limestone into lime and a pure stream of CO₂ for storage or use, with the potential to reduce emissions by up to 85% while lowering energy use and manufacturing costs. Designed to be retrofit-ready, it integrates with existing feedstocks, infrastructure and operations. CURA is working toward bringing a 30,000-tonne-per-year commercial demonstration facility online in 2028.

Led by experienced climate technology founders, we collaborate with cement producers, engineers, researchers and industry partners around the world to move breakthrough technology from the lab to industrial scale. We are building a team of curious scientists, inventive engineers and practical problem-solvers who enjoy tackling big challenges together. We combine scientific rigour with an entrepreneurial culture that values collaboration, creativity, learning and fun.

Safety is fundamental to how we work. CURA maintains a strong safety culture, and every team member completes occupational health and safety orientation and role-specific training.

As CURA’s Electrochemical Stack Design Engineer, you own the mechanical design of the stacks at the heart of our process. You will take our cell chemistry and turn it into multi-cell hardware that seals reliably, distributes flow and current evenly, survives aggressive electrolytes, and can be assembled, disassembled and rebuilt as the design evolves. We are looking for someone who has already designed electrolyzers, fuel cells, electrodialysis units or similar stacks, and who knows from experience why stacks leak, why cells underperform at the ends of a stack, and what changes when you go from five cells to fifty.

You will work side by side with our electrochemists, prototype technicians and external fabricators, and you will be one of the key people deciding how our core technology scales from lab cells to pilot stacks and toward the industrial hardware for our 30,000-tonne-per-year demonstration facility.

• Lead the mechanical design of electrochemical stacks, including flow fields, bipolar and monopolar plates, end plates, current collectors, manifolds, frames and spacers, gaskets, and compression systems.
• Design for uniform flow distribution and current distribution across cells, including internal manifolding, shunt current mitigation, and electrical isolation between cells and to ground.
• Develop sealing and compression strategies that account for membrane and gasket behaviour, including membrane swelling, creep and relaxation, thermal cycling, and long-term compression retention.
• Select materials for wetted and structural components in acidic and alkaline environments, balancing corrosion resistance, conductivity, chemical compatibility, cost and manufacturability.
• Perform tolerance stack-ups across multi-cell assemblies, compression and bolted-joint analysis, and structural, thermal or flow analysis (FEA/CFD) where it informs design decisions.
• Create detailed 3D CAD models, engineering drawings, assemblies and bills of materials to support prototype fabrication.

• Design fixtures, tooling, assembly jigs and test hardware for cell and stack development, including leak, pressure and compression testing.
• Develop and document stack assembly, inspection and teardown procedures, and use post-mortem analysis of tested stacks to drive design improvements.
• Work with prototype technicians, engineers and external manufacturing partners to fabricate, assemble, troubleshoot and rapidly iterate on stack hardware.
• Lead mechanical root cause analysis for leaks, cross-over, flow maldistribution, corrosion and other failure modes.
• Drive stack architecture decisions for scale-up, including active area, cell count, manufacturability, assembly time, serviceability and cost.
• Evaluate and work with external stack and component suppliers, and contribute mechanical expertise to vendor technical reviews.
• Maintain engineering documentation, revision control, design standards and technical records throughout development.
• Other duties as required to achieve CURA’s milestones.

• Demonstrate consistent attention to safe work practices, including work with pressurized systems, electrolytes and electrical equipment.

Collaboration & Communication

• Work well in a team setting and collaborate effectively across an interdisciplinary team of electrochemists, process engineers and technicians.
• Bring a results orientation along with strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.
• Communicate outcomes clearly and provide recommendations for further development to the management team.
• Demonstrate an aptitude for problem solving, troubleshooting, collaboration and innovation.
• Responsibly identify and manage IP, and communicate it to management, internal team members and external stakeholders.

• Be a self-starter who can work independently and manage multiple competing priorities.
• Manage relationships with external stakeholders such as vendors, suppliers and fabrication partners.
• Bring excellent organizational, project and time management capabilities.
• Contribute to a culture of honesty, transparency, innovation and safety.

 

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or a related discipline.
• Three or more years of hands-on mechanical design experience on electrochemical stacks such as water electrolyzers, CO₂ electrolyzers, fuel cells, electrodialysis or bipolar membrane electrodialysis units, redox flow batteries, or chlor-alkali cells.
• Demonstrated experience taking stack hardware from concept through prototype, fabrication, assembly and testing.
• Direct experience with gasket and seal design, compression-loaded assemblies, and leak-tight fluidic systems in a stack context.
• Practical knowledge of materials for electrochemical environments, including polymers, coated and uncoated metals, and their compatibility with acidic or alkaline electrolytes.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Creo or similar), including assemblies, detailed drawings and BOMs.
• Working command of GD&T, tolerance stack-ups and design-for-manufacturing principles.
• A hands-on approach, including time in the lab and shop to see how designs perform and iterating quickly on what you learn.

• Experience scaling stacks in active area or cell count, or moving from lab-scale to pilot or commercial-scale hardware.
• Familiarity with ion exchange membranes, bipolar membranes, porous transport layers or gas diffusion layers, and how they affect mechanical design.
• FEA or CFD experience applied to stack compression, thermal management or flow distribution.
• Experience with manufacturing processes used in stack production, such as CNC machining, injection or compression molding, stamping, coating, or additive manufacturing, and direct experience working with external fabrication partners.
• Experience designing for serviceability and component replacement in industrial settings.
• P.Eng designation or eligibility for registration with APEGA (or a Canadian equivalent).
• Experience in a startup or other fast-moving, resource-constrained engineering environment.