Sr. Simulation Engineer

Hayward Holdings Inc. (NYSE "HAYW") is the largest manufacturer of residential swimming pool equipment in the world, with a significant presence in the commercial pool market that is continuously growing. Hayward designs, manufactures, and markets a full line of residential and commercial pool and spa equipment including pumps, filters, heating, cleaners, salt chlorinators, automation, lighting, safety, flow control, and energy solutions at our company-owned facilities. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Hayward also has facilities in Tennessee, Arizona, and Rhode Island as well as Canada, Spain, France, Australia, and China. 

The Senior Simulation Engineer is responsible for driving Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis across Hayward’s product portfolio, ensuring our pumps, filters, gas heaters, and electronic enclosures meet performance, efficiency, and reliability targets through predictive simulation. Based in our Clemmons, NC facility, this role will provide strategic and hands-on technical competence for fluid, thermal, and multi-physics simulation activities spanning hydraulic turbomachinery, gas combustion, electronics cooling, and system-level fluid dynamics. 

The Senior Simulation Engineer will mentor junior engineers, partner with design, test, and manufacturing teams, and help shape Hayward’s simulation infrastructure and best practices. The ideal candidate will combine deep CFD expertise — particularly in rotating machinery and multiphase flow — with strong communication, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills to advance Hayward’s leadership in pool equipment innovation.

Strategic Responsibilities 

• Lead CFD simulation strategy across Hayward’s product portfolio, including residential and commercial pumps, filters, gas heaters, robotic cleaners, salt chlorinators, and electronic control systems.
• Drive simulation-led design from concept through validation, ensuring predictive analysis is embedded early in the product development process to reduce prototype cycles and accelerate time-to-market.
• Mentor and develop simulation and design engineers in CFD methodologies, meshing best practices, turbulence modeling, and test correlation.
• Act as a technical advisor and subject matter expert to engineering leadership, identifying simulation opportunities, influencing product design decisions, and advising on tradeoffs between hydraulic performance, thermal management, manufacturability, and cost.
• Promote consistent, continuous improvement of simulation practices, tools, scripting/automation libraries, and documentation across Hayward’s global engineering sites.
• Evaluate and recommend new simulation software and computing infrastructure investments aligned with Hayward’s broad product portfolio rather than narrow specialty needs.

Technical and Operational Responsibilities 

• Develop and execute CFD models for centrifugal pumps and hydraulic components, including impeller and volute/diffuser analysis, multiphase and cavitation prediction, and efficiency optimization.
• Perform conjugate heat transfer (CHT) and reacting-flow simulations for gas heaters, and electronics-cooling analyses for variable-speed drives and control electronics.
• Establish and maintain meshing, turbulence-model, and convergence best practices, including y+ judgment, MRF/sliding mesh setup for rotating machinery, and appropriate use of RANS and (where justified) LES/DES approaches.
• Own the CFD-to-test correlation loop in partnership with the lab team, including identifying root causes of simulation–test discrepancies and refining models accordingly.
• Develop scripting and automation workflows (Python, Java macros) to standardize simulation pipelines, run DOEs and design-optimization studies, and improve team productivity.
• Make effective use of high-performance simulation workstations for transient and large-scale cases.
• Engage in technical design reviews to identify simulation needs, advise project teams on analysis strategies, and contribute to product design decisions, including a working sense of manufacturability and assembly so that simulation-driven design proposals are practical to implement.
• Author and maintain simulation process documentation, procedures, and training materials.
• Collaborate with the FEA, MBD, and 1D system-modeling activities as needed, supporting structural, thermal, NVH, and system-level analyses across the simulation team.

Education 

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering. Master’s degree preferred.

Experience 

• 5+ years of industrial CFD experience, ideally with rotating-equipment exposure.
• Proficiency with a commercial CFD solver (Star-CCM+, Ansys Fluent, or CFX). 
• Demonstrated expertise in turbulence modeling (RANS, k-ω SST), meshing (structured and unstructured), MRF and sliding-mesh approaches for rotating machinery, conjugate heat transfer, and multiphase / cavitation modeling.
• Experience running CFD on high-performance simulation workstations for transient and large-scale cases.
• Scripting and automation experience (Python preferred; Java macros and MATLAB acceptable).
• Working knowledge of 3D CAD; SolidWorks preferred (NX or Creo acceptable).
• Demonstrated ownership of CFD-to-test correlation, including lab and experimental validation.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers.

Skills and Attributes (Nice to Have) 

• Pump and hydraulic turbomachinery domain (strongly relevant): centrifugal pump impeller and volute/diffuser design experience; familiarity with pump-design tools such as AxSTREAM, CFTurbo, BladeGen, or TurboDesign.
• Adjacent product physics: combustion / reacting-flow simulation for gas heaters; electronics-cooling CFD using general-purpose solvers (Star-CCM+ or Fluent).
• Adjacent simulation: FEA — structural and thermal (Ansys Mechanical, Abaqus, or equivalent); MBD for NVH (Adams, Recurdyn, Simpack, or equivalent); FSI (fluid–structure interaction); 1D system modeling (Dymola, AMESim, GT-Suite, Flowmaster, or equivalent).
• Other: awareness of design-for-manufacturing and design-for-assembly principles for high-volume consumer products, sufficient to evaluate the practicality of simulation-driven design proposals; familiarity with relevant standards (Hydraulic Institute for pumps; UL/NSF for pool equipment); experience with open-source CFD (OpenFOAM).
• Strategic thinker with the ability to balance technical rigor and business priorities.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills; able to convey complex simulation results to design, test, and leadership audiences.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and organizational abilities.
• Collaborative leadership style.
• Willingness to travel occasionally for cross-site collaboration, supplier engagement, or industry conferences.

Work Environment 

• Involves both office and laboratory work. Indoor and outdoor activities are routine requirements of the job.
• Commonly works around water, mechanical assemblies, and electrical machinery.

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