Computational Wildfire Engineer (Fixed Term)

Job title: Computational Wildfire Engineer (Fixed Term) Are you passionate about climate solutions and ready to join the development of next-generation wildfire prediction technology in a venture-backed startup? About us: We are a University of Cambridge spin-out on a mission to make communities safer and more climate-resilient with next-generation wildfire modelling and analytics. We combine high-performance, physics-based, AI-enhanced wildfire simulation with probabilistic modelling, weather, and climate data to deliver transparent and defensible insights across landscapes worldwide. The role: We are seeking a Computational Wildfire Engineer to develop and improve the core wildfire spread model behind our products. You will work hands-on in C++ and Python, build complex data pipelines, and turn physical and mathematical ideas into accurate, fast and robust software. You will join a diverse, interdisciplinary team and work closely with our founders, academic advisers, engineers, scientists, and customers. Your responsibilities include: • Develop, run, and analyse complex wildfire simulations. • Scale and refine our simulator through new physical and mathematical models, careful validation, and performance optimisation. • Build data pipelines and workflows for experimentation, calibration, and validation. • Communicate results clearly, both internally and directly to customers This role is for you if you are a well-rounded scientific engineer who enjoys moving between physics, algorithms, and detailed code. You may come from a mechanical, aerospace, civil, environmental, computational, or other physics-led engineering discipline. We are also open to candidates from physics, applied mathematics, or meteorology with a strong engineering mindset. You have excellent attention to detail, care about assumptions and edge cases, and want to develop modelling ideas as well as production-quality software. You enjoy solving problems, learning new tools and techniques, and working in a collaborative, fast-paced environment. You take ownership of your work and want to see it make a tangible impact on climate resilience and emergency response. Key technical skills: • Strong C++ and Python programming skills for scientific computing • Experience developing and validating physics-based numerical models, particularly in computational fluid dynamics, combustion, heat transfer, atmospheric dynamics, meteorology, weather forecasting, or stochastic simulation • Familiarity with statistical analysis, probabilistic modelling, and uncertainty quantification • Familiarity with geospatial data processing and complex environmental datasets • Familiarity with Git/Github-based software version control • Parallel computing / HPC, GPU acceleration, or CUDA experience is desirable Location: Hybrid (London, UK). We work two days per week from our Central London office and the remaining three days remotely. Right to work: Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position.