Hiring: Staff Scientist - Underwater Acoustics Company: Sofar Ocean Location: San Francisco, CA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-10 12:02:02 Target Skills & Keywords : Embedded Systems, Firmware, LLM, Machine Learning, Microsoft Excel, Security Clearance, Systems Design About the job Required Skills: •Sofar designs, builds, and deploys ocean sensing networks at a global scale to power ocean intelligence. We are expanding our sensing and intelligence capabilities into underwater acoustics and looking for an experienced scientist/engineer in ocean acoustics to help shape and advance Sofar’s underwater acoustics platform. •Help shape Sofar’s underwater acoustics strategy, and support the technical vision for an underwater acoustics platform that supports real-world marine applications. •Develop capabilities to detect, classify, and localize underwater objects using passive and/or active acoustic sensing methods •Advance methods for creating acoustic maps of the marine environment, including characterization of ambient soundscapes, propagation conditions, and relevant oceanographic context •Provide an acoustics-centric perspective on sensing system design, deployment strategy, data quality, and performance validation •Partner cross-functionally with Sofar’s oceanic and sensing scientists, software engineers, and firmware teams to translate acoustic research into operational products •Coordinate and conduct field experiments, data analyses, and simulation studies to evaluate acoustic system performance in real-world ocean conditions •Bring deep expertise in marine acoustics to complement Sofar’s ocean science, sensing, and forecasting teams Qualifications: •Deep expertise in underwater acoustics •In-depth knowledge of marine acoustic propagation, ambient noise, signal processing, and the practical constraints of ocean sensing •Excellent communication skills, and you excel working in a cross-functional team •Ph.D. in acoustics, ocean engineering, electrical engineering, applied physics, oceanography, or a related field, but we will consider highly qualified candidates of any education level with equivalent experience •Strong reputation within the ocean acoustics community, with experience contributing to research programs, technical partnerships, or externally funded work •Enthusiasm and experience in leveraging LLMs to magnify personal impact •This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance. Under U.S. law, only U.S. citizens are eligible to obtain a security clearance. •Operational familiarity with embedded sensing systems, firmware constraints, or edge processing for acoustic applications •Operational familiarity with the constraints of autonomous ocean platforms, including limited power, bandwidth, onboard compute, sensor calibration, and long-duration deployments •Comfort working in production codebases when necessary to personally deliver changes. Compensation: •$121,000 - $171,000 / year Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!