Subsea Acoustics Engineer

Ulysses • San Francisco, CA

4d

About The Position

Ulysses is seeking an Acoustics Engineer to develop the next generation of low-cost, high-performance underwater sensing systems designed for manufacturing scale. This role involves owning core acoustic payloads and algorithms (DVL, MBES, Side Scan Sonar, USBL, and adjacent modalities) and transforming them into robust, repeatable, and calibratable products for high-volume global deployment. It's a hands-on, full-stack position encompassing physics, signal processing, electronics, embedded software, mechanical integration, and production testing. The engineer will collaborate with robotics, autonomy, and manufacturing teams to ensure acoustic systems are reliable in the ocean and economically viable at scale.

Requirements

• Ambitious self-starter with an insatiable drive to win.
• Entrepreneurial mindset and ability to think like a founder.
• Embrace a 'gotta go fast' mindset and refuse to settle for 'good enough'.
• Capable of working autonomously in dynamic environments.
• Strong fundamentals in underwater acoustics / sonar / signal processing.
• Proven ability to develop working systems, not just theoretical ones.
• Demonstrated experience shipping (or owning major subsystems of) acoustic products—ideally in DVL, MBES, Side Scan, USBL or closely related sonar systems.
• Solid DSP + estimation skills (time/frequency domain analysis, filtering, detection, beamforming, Doppler, probabilistic performance metrics).
• Strong implementation ability in Python for R&D, and C/C++ (or similar) for embedded/real-time deployment.
• Comfortable working across disciplines.
• Hands-on approach to testing: designing experiments, building rigs, running field trials, debugging from raw waveforms to system behavior.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with transducer design, array design, acoustic materials, packaging, and underwater connectors/sealing.
• Experience with production test automation, calibration pipelines, and quality systems (e.g., ISO-9001 style processes).
• Prior work on AUV/ROV/USV platforms and navigation stacks (INS aiding, time sync, data association, mission reliability).
• Experience designing for harsh environments: pressure, corrosion, vibration, temperature, EMC/EMI.

Responsibilities

• Own acoustic product development elements end-to-end: architect system elements, prototype quickly, validate performance, and drive designs into production.
• Design low-cost, performative sonar systems across one or more of: DVL (bottom/water-track velocity, aiding INS), MBES (bathymetry, obstacle/terrain mapping), Side Scan Sonar (imaging/classification support), USBL (relative positioning/tracking, aiding navigation).
• Develop signal processing + estimation pipelines: waveform design, matched filtering, Doppler estimation, beamforming, multipath/false return rejection, uncertainty characterization, and sensor fusion interfaces.
• Build the hardware/software stack: transducer selection/design tradeoffs, analog front-end considerations, timing/synchronization, embedded compute constraints, interfaces (Ethernet, serial, CAN, PPS), firmware/drivers, and logging/observability.
• Scale to production: cost-down iterations, DFM/DFT, supplier selection, manufacturing documentation, calibration procedures, automated test fixtures, yield and reliability improvements.
• Test in the real world: tank/bench characterization, environmental testing, field deployments, sea trials, and structured performance reporting.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed