Naval Architect (Ocean Technology)

Location: Full-time, on-site in Portland, Oregon, United States; travel to vendors and test sites as needed. Relocation assistance to Portland is available if needed.

Salary: $160,000–$200,000 per year, plus company equity.

Company

Renewable energy and ocean technology company developing technologies for low-cost ocean energy and renewable fuels delivered to shore.

What you will do

• Perform stability, weights and balances, seakeeping, and hydrodynamic analyses for the autonomous ocean-deployed Node.
• Develop and release structural, mechanical, and support subsystem designs and fabrication drawings.
• Define requirements for stability, seakeeping, mooring, structures, and marine operations.
• Lead multidisciplinary investigations into hydrodynamic loads and contribute to OrcaFlex analyses and hydrodynamic studies.
• Develop corrosion mitigation and biofouling prevention strategies.
• Collaborate with marine operations engineers, regulators, marine surveyors, fabricators, vendors, and internal design teams to support safe deployment and recovery.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, Ocean Engineering, or a similar field.
• At least 2 years of professional experience performing stability, seakeeping, and weights and balances analyses in a naval architecture role.
• Professional experience with GHS or equivalent vessel stability software such as Maxsurf or Orca3D.
• Professional experience with parametric CAD software such as NX or SolidWorks for parts, assemblies, and fabrication drawings.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to provide and incorporate technical guidance across engineering, design, technician, and supplier teams.
• Ability to work full-time on-site in Portland, Oregon, and travel to vendors and test sites as needed.

Nice to have

• Experience with regulatory and classification requirements, shipyard manufacturing or repair, marine vessels, or marine environments.
• Experience with RANS tools, high-end hydrodynamics software, OrcaFlex, finite element analysis, and 3D CAD systems such as NX/Teamcenter or Rhino3D.
• Programming experience with Python, Julia, MATLAB, or a similar language for data analysis.
• Experience using AI tools such as Cursor, Claude, or Copilot for programming and analysis workflows.
• Strong hand-calculation, presentation, organizational, and technical project skills.

Culture & Benefits

• Creative, scrappy, collaborative environment organized around technical merit and first-principles problem-solving.
• High autonomy and ownership from initial concept through fabrication and deployment.
• Flexible paid time off and work-life balance, with occasional longer hours and weekends for critical needs.
• Company equity for full-time employees.
• Company-paid gold-level PPO health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, and disability insurance for employees and eligible dependents.
• Access to 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA accounts.