# Behzad Zamanian Yazdi

> Building Propulsion Systems @ Astro Mechanica | Former Blue Origin

Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/behzadzamanianyazdi

Seasoned Turbomachinery Engineer with 12  years of experience in leading and managing cross functional R&D teams through design, build, and testing high-speed turbomachinery ans Propulsion products. PhD in Mechanical Engineering with extensive experience in gas foil bearings design and rotordynamics. Currently a manager of Turbomachinery Design at BLUE ORIGIN, leading a talented team of engineers to create novel solutions for lunar and deep space applications.

## Work Experience
### Principal Propulsion Engineer @ Astro Mechanica
Jan 2026 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area

### Principal Turbomachinery Engineer @ Critical Energy
Jan 2025 – Jan 2026 | Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Harvesting the geothermal energy and creating sustainable and clean 24/7 electricity by building efficient, scalable, and mass producible power plants!

### Manager - Turbomachinery Design - Lunar Permanence @ BLUE ORIGIN
Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Managed the turbomachinery team (6 direct reports) to design, manufacture, and qualify high-speed oil-free turbo-generators and turbo-compressors for deep-space missions, including:

- Managed and directed all mechanical, fluid/thermal, aerodynamic, and electromagnetic design
efforts, ensuring successful passage of gated reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.) on schedule

- Oversaw component-level and full prototype performance testing, including developing test plans
and resolved technical risks to maintain program schedule

- Managed vendors and suppliers, including schedule and budget management, and weekly reporting
to higher management

### Sr. Turbomachinery Design Engineer @ BLUE ORIGIN
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Designed and validated gas foil bearings for 4 different high-speed cryogenic turbomachines, including:

- Bearing sizing and design (GD&T), fluid dynamic and thermal analysis, and performance validation

- Detailed turbomachine rotordynamic modeling and stability analysis

- Bearing in-house manufacturing, and commissioning of test rigs for bearing performance testing

### Turbomachinery Design Team Leader @ Energy Recovery, Inc.
Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area
Lead the R&D team to:
- Develop advanced flow & structural designs for Energy Recovery’s novel rotating
pressure exchanger (PX) to meet extreme high pressure, harsh process fluids with erosive environmental operating conditions, high vibrations, flow & pressure fluctuations etc.
- Design, build and validate new test rigs and flow loops to perform experimental
research and development on novel PX designs, including instrumentation, data acquisition, post processing, generating insights and reporting to management
- Develop detailed design documentation & test summaries.
- Collaborate closely with system design & performance team to ensure validated
designs and ideas are implemented in the field.
- Work with customer as required throughout project cycle to develop specifications,
validate PX performance, and help commission products in field.

### Mechanical Engineer, R&D @ Energy Recovery, Inc.
Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area
Design, analysis & development of advanced process lubricated bearings for Energy Recovery's rotating equipments (pressure exchangers, pumps, turbochargers).

### Graduate Teaching Assistant @ University of Texas at Arlington
Jan 2013 – Jan 2017 | Arlington, Texas
•	Thermal Engineering (MAE 3309)
•	Engineering Analysis (MAE 3360)
•	Kinematic and Dynamics of Machinery (MAE 3318)

### Graduate Research Assistant - Turbomachinery and Energy Systems Laboratory @ University of Texas at Arlington
Jan 2012 – Jan 2017 | Arlington, Texas
• Responsible for designing, leading manufacturing and testing air-foil bearings for turbomachinery (turbocharger and micro-turbine). 
•	Lead the detailed design of novel hydrostatic/ hydrodynamic air foil bearings.
•	Designed and led the manufacturing process of test-rig and experimental setup for rotorodynamic and stability analysis of rotor-foil bearing system. 
•	Validated new bearing designs through rig testing and integrated machinery tests.
•	Developed an in-house software which is capable of calculating bearing characteristics, performing stability analysis, nonlinear rotordynamic simulation (code is written in Matlab, C++). 
•	Performed rotordynamic analysis and evaluated rotor-foil bearing performance using XLRotor and Dyrobes software. 
•	Created NI LabVIEW program for monitoring vibration, temperature, torque, and performing digital filtering on the vibration data and plotting the results
•	Gained hands-on experience using precision measuring tools such as micrometer, height gauge, caliper, as well as, electric/electronic measuring instruments such as Proximity Probes, Thermocouples, Pressure Transducer, Tachometer, etc. 
•	Acquired skill in machining, welding and using the hydraulic press.


## Education
### Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Mechanical Engineering
The University of Texas at Arlington


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/behzad-zamanianyazdi

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Last updated: 2026-04-13