Senior Fleet Simulation Engineer

About the Company

We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.

The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis.

About the Job

We are developing a core technology that will operate in the worst conditions the world’s oceans have to offer for years at a time without human maintenance or intervention. As we advance our technology from the prototype phase to commercialization, we need an engineer who can bridge the gap between real-world sensor data and our internal simulation tools. You will be expected to operate our entire stack from end-to-end—running reduced-order physics simulations, managing cloud-based data, and post-processing results. Your work will inform our fleet operations and updates to future designs of our technology. With a fleet in operation, your goal is to ensure that what we see on our screens matches what is happening in the ocean, using fleet data to initialize simulations and diagnosing any anomalies that arise during operations. You will own the digital twin of our fleet - we expect you to have strong experience in both simulation and data acquisition & processing.

Candidates should have strong interpersonal skills and be able to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis. If you are an excellent engineer, regardless of your background, we want you to apply. Our staff have worked at organizations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Virgin Orbit, Virgin Galactic, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, New Relic, Raytheon, Disney Imagineering, Bridgewater Associates, and the US Army and Air Force, as well as research universities, startups, and small companies across a range of industries. We are organized as a public benefit corporation and are backed by leading venture capital firms, private investors, philanthropic investors, and endowments.

We strive to be the best engineering team on the planet and we compensate our engineers accordingly.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain the automated process that initializes device states using sensor readings to run real-time simulations in active wave states.
• Develop tools and dashboards that visualize live sensor telemetry side-by-side with simulation outputs for fleet-wide performance monitoring.
• Use fleet data to close the loop on design, providing the ME and Simulation teams with the empirical evidence needed to refine safety factors and performance limits.
• Lead the investigation into "out-of-sample" sensor readings, using non-automated simulations to diagnose anomalies in dynamics, performance, or structural response.
• Serve as a versatile member of the simulation team, capable of running routine analyses, developing new code features, and performing manual "deep-dives" into complex physics problems.

Required qualifications

• BS/MS in Engineering, Physics, or equivalent experience and expertise.
• Strong foundational knowledge in fluid mechanics, structural dynamics, and vibration/resonance.
• Proficiency in Julia and Python, with the ability to build production-ready engineering tools.
• Familiarity with filtering, FFTs, and sensor fusion techniques to clean "noisy" data for simulation input.
• Proven track record of collecting data from physical assets and using it to inform, validate, or initialize numerical simulations.
• Ability to use AI for code generation and efficiency while maintaining the technical intuition to spot errors in the output.

Desired qualifications

• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Engineering, Physics, or equivalent experience and expertise.
• Experience with fluid or offshore sensors (ADCPs, pressure sensors, strain gauges).
• Hands-on experience with data acquisition (DAQ) hardware and instrumenting physical test articles.

The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed.

Additional Requirements

• Intermittently able to work longer hours and weekends to support critical needs. While we expect a lot of each other, we also offer a high degree of autonomy and work-life balance, including unlimited PTO, and flexible working hours.

Compensation and Benefits

If hired for this full-time role, you will receive:

• Cash compensation of $150,000 - 250,000
• Equity in the company. We’re all owners and if we’re successful, this equity should be far and away the most valuable component of your compensation.
• A benefits package that helps you take care of yourself and your family, including:
• Flexible paid time off
• Health insurance (the company pays 100% of gold level PPO plan for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
• Dental insurance (the company pays 100% for full time employees and 100% for their partners and dependents)
• Vision insurance (the company pays 100% for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
• Disability insurance (the company pays 100% for a policy to provide long term financial support if you become disabled)
• Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA
• Relocation assistance to facilitate your move to Portland (if needed).

Location

Our offices, lab, and shop are located in Portland, Oregon. We strongly prefer that candidates are willing to relocate to Portland, but at a minimum the position requires the ability to travel to Portland intermittently.