Panthalassa

Panthalassa

Fluid Dynamicist

Portland, OR · Principal · Full-time

Sponsorship not specified$115k-$175kDetected 68 days ago
PythonCode ReviewGitLinuxData VisualizationStatisticsCFDMechanical DesignAerospace EngineeringCommunicationPublic SpeakingAdaptabilityRenewable Energy

About the role

  • 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 value rigorous technical debate, fast iteration, strong ownership, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Responsibilities

  • Develop, maintain, validate, and apply fast-running hydrodynamics models used for design, optimization, controls, and fleet deployment analysis.
  • Develop Python engineering tools to interface with modeling codes written in Julia and Python.
  • Build and maintain external-function links, data interfaces, and workflow glue between hydrodynamics models, simulation tools, optimization pipelines, and analysis scripts.
  • Collaborate within the CFD team to understand where high-fidelity results can improve reduced-order models and where reduced-order tools can guide CFD validation priorities.
  • Collaborate with optimization and controls teams to ensure that fast-running tools are accurate, robust, and useful for design-space exploration and operational decision-making.
  • Develop new analysis methods and identify additional uses for fast-running simulation tools across the company.
  • Ability to collaborate with CFD, controls, mechanical, software, metocean, and test teams to resolve modeling and simulation issues.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree in Ocean Engineering, Naval Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a similar field.
  • Strong proficiency in Python for scientific computing, engineering analysis, data processing, and tool development.
  • Ability to run simulations, process results, identify anomalies, debug issues, and communicate findings clearly.
  • Experience with numerical modeling, reduced-order modeling, simulation tool development, or scientific software development.
  • Working knowledge of Linux environments, Git-based workflows, and engineering software development practices.
  • Strong first-principles engineering judgment and the ability to understand model assumptions, limitations, and appropriate use cases.

Nice to have

  • Master's or PhD in Ocean Engineering, Naval Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a similar field.
  • Experience with frequency-domain and/or time-domain BEM methods.
  • Experience with OrcaFlex, WAMIT, Capytaine, Nemoh, AQWA, or similar hydrodynamic modeling tools.
  • Experience linking external functions, plugins, or custom models into larger simulation environments.
  • Experience with Julia, especially for scientific computing or simulation.
  • Experience with device-state simulation, time-domain simulation, controls simulation, or optimization workflows.
  • Experience interpreting, validating, or collaborating around CFD simulation results.
  • Experience with metocean reanalysis datasets, measured ocean data, wave spectra, environmental contours, or fleet deployment simulations.

Skills

  • About the Job

Compensation

  • Compensation and Benefits

Benefits

  • 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

Company info

  • 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.
  • As a Fluid Dynamicist you will help develop, validate, and apply the fast-running physics-based tools that drive Panthalassa's design, optimization, and fleet deployment decisions.
  • You will work with our Principal Fluid Dynamicist and collaborate closely with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), controls, optimization, mechanical engineering, metocean, and fleet performance teams.
  • This role focuses on reduced-order and mid-fidelity marine hydrodynamics tools, including boundary element method (BEM) models, fleet deployment simulators, OrcaFlex models, metocean-driven performance analyses, and external-function links to our time-domain device simulators.
  • You will write production-quality engineering code, run analyses, process results, communicate findings, debug model behavior, and identify opportunities to improve our fast-running simulation stack.
  • The ideal candidate has strong fundamentals in marine hydrodynamics, understands BEM concepts, is highly capable in Python, and can move fluidly between theory, code, simulation results, and engineering decisions.
  • This person will independently own major modeling and simulation workstreams.
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This listing is sourced directly from Panthalassa's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.