Physics Simulation Team Lead

We’re partnering with a rapidly growing InsurTech startup that is transforming property protection by combining physics simulations and AI to assess real-world risk. Their platform makes homes insurable against perils like wildfire, hurricane, and flood, even in regions where traditional insurers exit. The company has scaled from 8 to 35 people in under two years and achieved $100k revenue in just three months, and the founding team has multiple successful exits, including MetroMile (acquired by Lemonade).

They are looking for a Physics Simulation Team Lead to own and expand their physics-based simulation capabilities. This is a hands-on leadership role, blending deep technical expertise with people and program management, and directly shaping the systems that drive risk decisions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the physics simulation sub-team as both a technical lead and people manager, coordinating work across multiple perils including wildfire, wind, and flood.

• Own the end-to-end simulation pipeline, working closely with platform engineers, ML teams, and subject matter experts.

• Build, validate, and optimize computational solvers; initially act as a hands-on individual contributor to establish scalable engineering workflows.

• Partner with recruiting to grow and scale the simulation team, evolving from player-coach into a full people leadership role.

• Collaborate across the Applied Science team and broader company to communicate modeling decisions, trade-offs, and technical direction to leadership and product teams.

• Drive technical strategy for simulation capabilities and ensure integration into production systems that impact real-world risk decisions.

Key Qualifications:

• 5–10 years of experience leading and executing CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations, including design, execution, and validation.

• Hands-on experience with CFD, including building, modifying, and running solvers.

• Technical leadership experience managing projects or cross-functional teams.

• Background in startups or high-growth, fast-paced technology environments; experience in aerospace, climate tech, or other high-bar tech companies preferred.

• PhD or Master’s in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering.

• Strong programming skills in Fortran, C++, and Python; experience extending and modifying existing codebases.

• Practical experience with High-Performance Computing (HPC) and parallel processing.

• Comfortable balancing hands-on technical work with team leadership responsibilities.

Excluded Profiles:

• Candidates from robotics or vehicle simulation backgrounds.

• Engineers whose sole focus is deep IC work without leadership experience.

• Pure engineering managers without recent hands-on experience.

• Professionals whose experience is exclusively in large, slow-moving organizations.