Lead Fluid Dynamicist

Athena Racing; Portsmouth; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A competitive sailing team in Portsmouth seeks creative and motivated fluid dynamicists to enhance yacht performance for the America’s Cup. The role involves managing a team, optimizing designs, and collaborating across disciplines in a high-performance setting. Ideal candidates will have strong CAD experience and a background in CFD applications. The position offers a competitive package including 25 annual leave days and private medical insurance.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

Company Pension Scheme

Private Medical Insurance

Life Assurance

Cycle to Work Scheme

Qualifications

• Strong CAD Surfacing experience alongside a drive to find creative performance solutions.
• Extensive experience with commercial or open-source CFD solvers for marine or aerospace applications.
• Ability to thrive in a high-performance, fast-paced America’s Cup environment.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of fluid dynamicists, maximizing performance discovery.
• Contribute to the design and optimization of sails, hulls, hydrofoils using CAD.
• Collaborate closely with performance analysts and sailors.

Skills

CAD Surfacing experience

Experience with CFD solvers

Strong communication skills

Team-focused mindset

Ability to thrive in high-performance environment

Tools

3DX/Catia

Fine Marine

Job description

Athena Racing are expanding our technical team with the goal of winning the America’s Cup, the oldest international competition still contested in any sport. We are building an agile, creative and collaborative team to compete and win at the pinnacle of the sport of sailing. Our team values have a sharp focus on maximizing performance from our designs, while fostering a collaborative and supportive environment.

We are looking for creative and highly motivated fluid dynamicists whose efforts will drive the performance of our yacht. This role is a key part of our rigorous, methodical, data-driven approach to performance discovery in an agile and dynamic environment where your work will directly influence our on-water performance.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of fluid dynamicists, maximizing the rate of performance discovery through thorough understanding of fluid dynamic principles.
• Contribute to the design and optimization of sails, hulls, hydrofoils and appendages using CAD surfacing.
• Collaborate closely with designers, performance analysts, and sailors to interpret correlation trends and inform design decisions.
• Analyse yacht dynamics and real-world flow structures (aero-hydro interaction, free-surface effects) to improve CFD modelling fidelity.
• Implement and maintain CFD best practices, including standards, procedures and documentation.

Required skills/experience

• Strong CAD Surfacing experience alongside a drive to find creative performance solutions.
• Extensive experience with commercial or open-source CFD solvers for marine or aerospace applications.
• Strong communications skills, both written and verbal.
• Organized and team focused mindset.
• Ability to thrive in a high-performance, fast-paced America’s Cup environment.

Desired skills/experience

• Experience in yacht or marine hydrodynamic/aerodynamics.
• Experience with 3DX/Catia.
• Experience with Fine Marine.
• Understanding of machine learning applications in CFD and design space exploration.
• Experience with HPC environments and parallelized CFD workflows.

Benefits

• Be part of a world‑class America’s Cup team working at the intersection of sport and technology, with the chance to contribute directly to our sporting success and push the limits of human and technological performance.
• Opportunities for growth — we have openings from junior to senior levels, and will look to develop you to be part of the future of our team.
• Competitive package with:
• 25 days annual leave, plus public holidays, per annum
• Company Pension Scheme
• Private Medical Insurance
• Life Assurance
• Cycle to Work Scheme