Data Science Lead (Routing & Compute)

Are you looking to make a difference in the push towards net zero? Are you passionate about technical innovation and interested in putting your experience to work in a cutting-edge green tech company with potential for worldwide environmental impact?

Welcome to this exciting opportunity to join DRIFT Energy.

DRIFT operates at the intersection of deep tech, digital & AI and the blue economy. At our core, we are a data-driven engineering company – on a mission to make Oceans of Energy.

Established in 2021, DRIFT is backed by reputable VCs, family offices and angel investors. We are graduates of the Catapult Energy Systems, Set Squared Bristol and Creative Destruction Labs. Our company has been showcased in the Sunday Times, Forbes and demonstrated at SailGP. We are award winning, including Green Startup of the year, Sustainability Entrepreneur of the year and the LeZERO Global Innovation Prize of 2023 at COP28.

The Company recently reached their seed funding and this is now a crucial & exciting time for the business as we look to appoint a Data Science Lead (Routing & Compute).

This role is highly autonomous and will see you influence and pioneer a new class of renewable energy to help combat climate change.

This key role will drive the realisation of DRIFT’s unique routing algorithm – a mission critical component to the business. This role is accountable to the CEO for developing the algorithm that directs the vessels on their energy harvesting voyages (routing). This exciting role evolves with the company from delivering DRIFT’s initial research into developing more advanced features set and data layers, through to eventual transition to ‘live operations’. With a commitment to learning and adopting novel techniques and applying scientific rigor, this role will work with the Head of Vessel Design and Head of Vessel Programme to accelerate the ‘design loop’ of DRIFT vessels.

3-Month Deliverables

• Critique V1 routing algorithm to both understand the work that has gone before, but to explore and assess the priorities for future works.

• Build development pipeline for V2 routing algorithm in combination with 3rd party consulting firm.

• Establish the processes and tools required to support and evaluation future development of the algorithm, including interaction with the broader vessel ‘Design Loop’.

6-Month Deliverables

• V2 of the routing algorithm developed with 3rd party consulting company. This role will oversee the delivery of work from a prominent UK Data Science company.

• Define the data sets and ingestion requirements for the various weather, climate and other data sets and codify the operation & environmental constraints of the energy vessel.

• Define and conclude a test and verification process for the software, including with an in-real life test v.s. a human routing expert.

12-Month Deliverables

• Define, recruit and onboard new members of the team to support the growing routing and compute needs of the company.

• Document the Routing Performance deliverables for input to DRIFT’s Series A data room for investors and customer prospects.

• Define the roadmap for how to develop the routing algorithm into an ‘Operational Product’ – the plan that takes if from R&D to in-real life (e.g. digital twin environments and analytics capability).

*Please note, this is a full-time, long-term role. This is not a fixed term contract.

Essential Skills & Experience:

• 4+ years of relevant experience
• Masters Degree or BSci (in computer science, data science, machine learning or similar subjects)
• Data Science background with proven ability to understand complex systems and derive appropriate optimization techniques.
• Working understanding of advanced machine learning and AI data science tools and techniques.
• Core data scientist skills (e.g. Jupyter notebooks, github, cloud compute environments, python, data visualization tools and feature engineering).
• Ability to source and merge multiple layers of data (including weather data, geospatial information and 3rd party api data sets).

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Experience within the Maritime and Energy sectors.
• Experience working and forming partnerships with 3rd parties and consulting firms.
• Exceptional communication skills and presentation skills
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy skills
  

• The opportunity to be part of a hugely innovative world climate change initiative
• Working with a passionate, committed and visionary “crew”
• 26 days holiday per year
• £55 – 65k salary plus equity
• Pension
• Private Medical Insurance
• Life Assurance

This role will be based in the Bath / Bristol area and office based with the option to negotiate flexible working.

We are keen to encourage applications and interest from individuals underrepresented in the deep tech and climate space. Climate change and climate justice is both a social and inclusion issue. We especially welcome applicants with experience across all equality and inclusion challenges and are keen for applicants who may have different experiences to those exactly specified in the application.