Computational Physics Engineer, Continuum Engine

Nebula; El Segundo (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) with company matching

On-site work

Bonus for living within 5 miles of El 

Job summary

Nebula in El Segundo, CA is seeking researchers to discretize and solve Maxwell's equations and related PDEs on graded grids using the Continuum Engine. You will own verification, validation, and data models with the materials team, ensuring physics-based design is robust and build-ready.

We require hands-on discretization of PDEs in production code and strong numerical analysis skills. On-site work is required, equity is offered as part of the compensation package in a high-growth startup.

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent experience in computational physics, applied math, electrical engineering, or CS.

Responsibilities

• Discretization of Maxwell's equations in full-wave and quasistatic regimes.

Skills

PDE discretization

C++ proficiency

Verification and validation

Uncertainty quantification

GPU compute

Numerical analysis

Education

Degree in computational physics

Applied mathematics or electrical engineering

Equivalent experience

Tools

C++

Finite-difference time-domain

High-performance computing

Job description

What to Expect

Your role is to discretize and solve Maxwell's equations, and their thermal and elastic siblings, on graded grids. Continuum Engine is our design and simulation tool: it turns design intent into geometry a production process can build.

The solver work spans the full-wave and quasistatic regimes, the sub-cell and boundary treatments that keep them accurate, and the material and process data model they run on, where every property carries its provenance and uncertainty.

You will own the verification and validation program, from analytic and manufactured solutions to comparison against measured parts, and the data model alongside our materials team, so that a design is judged against the physics of what will be built.

We are looking for computational physicists, applied mathematicians and engineers with experience and interest in computational electromagnetics, the numerical analysis of partial differential equations, verification methodology, and homogenization and uncertainty quantification.

Every role works with our AI systems daily. What can be deterministic, must be. You need no AI background; we prefer people without one. We hire for your knowledge and experience in the field first, so you can steer the ship; the tooling is a learning curve we expect you to take on.

We work on-site in El Segundo. This is hard work, but you will be rewarded with equity in a company we believe will become one of the world's most valuable.

What You'll Do

• Discretization in the full-wave and quasistatic regimes: finite-difference time-domain, curl-curl and Poisson formulations
• Design synthesis: mapping requirements onto geometry a committed process can build
• Material interfaces: sub-cell models, embedded-boundary and cut-cell treatments, and the accuracy each buys
• Domain truncation: perfectly matched layers, radiation and periodic boundaries, and the error each introduces
• Grids: graded tensor-product grids, adaptive refinement, and quantization of geometry onto the grid
• Verification: convergence studies, a posteriori error estimation, manufactured solutions, independent reference solvers in regression
• Material and process data: values from nominal to measured, with conditions and uncertainty carried
• Homogenization and uncertainty: effective tensors for deposited microstructure, anisotropy, and process tolerance reported separately

What You'll Bring

• A degree in computational physics, applied mathematics, electrical engineering or computer science, or equivalent experience
• Hands-on discretizing and solving partial differential equations in production code, with the numerical analysis behind it
• Fluent with convergence studies, manufactured solutions and reference comparisons, and able to say where error originates
• Comfortable in modern C++ inside a large codebase, reading a solver someone else wrote
• The judgment to say whether a discrepancy is discretization, boundary truncation or the model itself
• Ready to establish a verification and validation program and write it for others to run
• Bonus: homogenization and effective medium theory, uncertainty quantification, inverse and adjoint methods, or GPU compute

Expected Compensation

$100k to $350k base salary, plus equity

• Equity participation in a high-growth startup
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with company matching
• Bonus for living within 5 miles of our El Segundo facility
• On-site work with rare work-from-home exceptions
• Merit-based organization where contribution drives reward