Experimental Physicist Jobs in Oregon (NOW HIRING)

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

As a Senior Computational Engineer, you will lead and improve the use of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to validate the performance of optimized marine system designs. You will serve as the bridge between fast-running reduced-order simulations, mechanical design, and the CFD team, ensuring that promising optimized geometries and operating strategies are evaluated rigorously before they influence major engineering decisions.

This role is highly technical and highly cross-functional. You will run and improve CFD workflows using Helyx, OpenFOAM, and/or Star-CCM+, validate optimized results against high-fidelity simulations, compare simulation outputs against experimental and sea-trial data, and communicate simulation confidence, assumptions, sensitivities, and validation status. You will be expected to diagnose difficult CFD issues, improve automation pipelines, post-process and visualize complex results, and help establish the standards by which performance claims are validated.

The ideal candidate has deep marine CFD experience, strong first-principles engineering judgment, and the ability to own major technical projects from ambiguous problem statements through validated conclusions. We are especially interested in candidates who can not only use CFD tools, but also improve them through scripting, automation, solver customization, OpenFOAM/Helyx development, or related code development.

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. You will own your designs cradle-to-grave, from first concept through fabrication and deployment at sea. If you are an excellent engineer, regardless of your background, we want you to apply.

Responsibilities

• Own the CFD-based performance validation process for optimized marine system designs, including geometry preparation, meshing, solver setup, execution, debugging, post-processing, visualization, and reporting.
• Use Helyx, OpenFOAM, and/or Star-CCM+ to evaluate optimized geometries and operating conditions generated by fast-running time-domain simulation, Boundary Element Method (BEM), and fleet deployment tools.
• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve CFD validation workflows and automation pipelines with support from other engineers and software developers.
• Improve robustness, accuracy, and reliability of advanced CFD workflows across complex marine operating conditions, including meshing, solver setup, turbulence modeling, boundary conditions, and post-processing workflows.
• Evaluate power, propulsion, hydrodynamic loading, device performance, and other key metrics using high-fidelity simulation data.
• Compare CFD results against reduced-order models, BEM tools, time-domain device simulations, experimental data, sea-trial measurements, and metocean observations.
• Work directly with data collected from prototype deployments and sea-trial campaigns to improve model fidelity and accelerate deployment readiness.
• Refine and extend internal validation standards to ensure CFD results are accurate, converged, and physically meaningful for design and operational decision-making.
• Develop clear visualizations, dashboards, plots, technical memos, and presentations that communicate simulation results, limitations, uncertainties, and recommended actions.
• Collaborate closely with optimization, controls, mechanical engineering, metocean data, fleet simulation, and experimental teams to close the loop between predicted and measured performance.
• Contribute to verification and validation of CFD methods using canonical cases, experimental data, sea-trial data, and internal benchmark problems.
• Run simulation workflows on on-premises and cloud-based HPC systems.
• Improve team velocity by increasing automation, reducing manual handoffs, documenting best practices, and developing reusable simulation templates.
• Use modern software and AI-assisted engineering tools to accelerate coding, analysis, documentation, and simulation workflow development while maintaining strong technical judgment and verification discipline.

Required Qualifications

• Legal authorization to work in the United States.
• Bachelor's degree in Ocean Engineering, Naval Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a similar field.
• Strong foundation in fluid mechanics, marine hydrodynamics, rigid body dynamics, and physics-based modeling.
• Significant experience running end-to-end CFD simulations for real engineering systems.
• Experience using at least one major RANS-based CFD tool such as Helyx, OpenFOAM, or Star-CCM+.
• Ability to diagnose and resolve CFD issues involving meshing, boundary conditions, convergence, numerical stability, turbulence modeling, and post-processing.
• Strong understanding of verification and validation principles, including grid convergence, sensitivity studies, uncertainty, and comparison against experimental or field data.
• Experience processing, visualizing, and interpreting complex simulation datasets.
• Working knowledge of Linux environments, scripting workflows, and HPC-based simulation execution.
• Ability to use first-principles reasoning to determine when simulation results are physically meaningful and when they require further investigation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical results and limitations to multidisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own and drive complex technical projects to completion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Ocean Engineering, Naval Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a similar field.
• 5+ years of industry or research experience in CFD, marine hydrodynamics, naval architecture, offshore engineering, turbomachinery, propulsion, or related fields.
• Experience with marine CFD, offshore systems, free-surface flows, multiphase flows, fluid-structure interaction, propulsion, wave-structure interaction, or complex metocean environments.
• Experience using multiple CFD tools, especially Helyx, OpenFOAM, and Star-CCM+.
• Experience developing or modifying OpenFOAM, Helyx, or other CFD solver capabilities.
• Experience building CFD automation pipelines, including CAD-to-mesh-to-solve-to-post-processing workflows.
• Experience with Python, C++, Julia, Java, Bash, or other programming languages used in engineering simulation workflows.
• Experience comparing simulations to sea-trial data, wave basin data, tow tank data, or other physical test data.
• Experience working with metocean data, reanalysis datasets, wave spectra, current profiles, wind data, or measured ocean data.
• Working knowledge of BEM, reduced-order models, time-domain simulation, or optimization workflows.
• Experience with CAD-to-CFD workflows using tools such as NX, SolidWorks, Rhino, or similar.
• Experience developing dashboards, automated reports, or visualization tools for simulation results.
• Experience in startup environments or fast-paced R&D teams; comfortable with ambiguity, proactive in shaping work, and adaptable to change.
• A record of mentorship, technical documentation, internal training, or leadership in simulation communities.

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

• Occasional extended hours or weekend work to support key milestones, sea trials, fleet operations, or urgent design decisions.
• Strong preference for candidates based in Portland, Oregon. Exceptional remote candidates will be considered, with regular travel to Portland expected.
• 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.

Compensation and Benefits

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

• Cash compensation of $155,000–$200,000.
• 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, 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.