Tropical Cyclone SME
$170k - $220k USD
Why Join Stand: At Stand, you’ll help build a new class of global property protection. We use advanced physics and AI to model catastrophic risk at the asset level, then automate underwriting and mitigation before loss occurs. Insurance is simply the current delivery mechanism. The real product is a scalable risk engine.
We stay when traditional insurers exit. We model what others approximate. And we build systems that change outcomes, not just prices.
Background: The property insurance industry is built to price loss after it happens. It relies on coarse proxies, backward-looking data, and manual processes, then accepts damage as unavoidable.
Stand takes a different approach. We simulate how real-world catastrophes affect individual properties, translate that into actionable decisions, and automate the business around it. The result is a platform that can underwrite what others can’t and operate with far less friction.
Role Summary: On the Applied Science team, we build the physical and probabilistic engines that power Stand’s climate resilience platform. As a Tropical Cyclone Subject Matter Expert (SME), you will own the wind and flood perils end-to-end, from large scale tropical cyclone storm surges and wind fields to localized, property-scale physical interaction simulations.
This is not an academic or advisory role. You will take responsibility for designing, sourcing, validating, and operationalizing wind and flood models that integrate cleanly into production pipelines and support real underwriting decisions.
You will investigate, prototype, and develop simulations to capture global and local scales, and partner closely with our infrastructure and numerical engineers to productize models in our workflows, defining simulation needs, physical assumptions, boundary conditions, and validation standards. While you may work with our numerical experts to deploy and modify specific solver source code—you will be comfortable independently driving the tooling to ready states and retain primary ownership of wind-specific and flood-specific modeling decisions, performance, and credibility.
This position is ideal for someone who thrives in fast-paced environments, creates structure from ambiguous situations, owns outcomes end to end, collaborates effectively across disciplines, and is energized by building from zero to one.
What You’ll Do:
Own wind hazard modeling across scales
Design and operationalize global (large-scale) wind and flood models for tropical cyclones and severe weather events (extending to others perils, e.g., severe convective storms).
Develop or integrate localized (property-scale) wind and flood models capturing terrain, surface features, and building-scale flow effects.
Ensure physical consistency and clean interfaces between global and local models.
Define what “good” looks like for wind and flood modeling
Identify the key physical features global and localized wind and flood models must capture and define required inputs, outputs, and resolution across scales.
Set clear modeling targets aligned with business needs and underwriting use cases.
Drive validation and credibility
Define and assemble validation datasets (damage data, remote sensing, lab/field measurements).
Establish validation metrics and statistical tests to assess both physical realism and business utility.
Own the validation test suite used for ongoing model evaluation and iteration.
Integrate models into production pipelines
Ensure models slot cleanly into Stand’s broader modeling stack, including global-to-local transformations.
Define interface contracts, APIs, and data handoffs.
Support optional integration with structural response models when appropriate.
Communicate clearly and collaborate deeply
Explain modeling decisions, assumptions, tradeoffs, and uncertainty to cross-functional partners.
Work closely with across teams to move models from concept to production.
Core Skills (Must-Haves)
Deep physical intuition for wind and flood behavior across scales, from synoptic or mesoscale systems to building-scale effects.
Experience working with CFD, atmospheric modeling, and their coupling
Demonstrated experience with wind and flood physical hazard modeling, atmospheric modeling, or closely related domains.
Experience working with multi-scale physical models, not just a single resolution or domain.
Strong validation discipline: comfort comparing models against real-world or experimental data and rejecting weak physical explanations.
Ability to own end-to-end modeling workflows, from design through production-ready implementation.
Clear technical communication and a collaborative mindset.
Nice-to-Haves:
Exposure to hazard-structural coupling models
Familiarity with probabilistic modeling approaches (e.g., uncertainty modeling, surrogate models, reduced-order methods).
Experience using ML-driven approaches to accelerate or approximate large-scale wind simulations.
Prior experience in an early-stage startup or fast-moving applied science environment.
Non-Negotiable Competencies
Ability to reason about and integrate multiple scales of wind models.
Rigor and skepticism in validation and physical assumptions.
Highly self-motivated, with a “run-through walls to get the problem solved” mentality, self-directed, proactive, and adaptable.
Comfort with ambiguity and open-ended modeling problems.
Ownership mentality — you treat the wind and flood perils as your domain and push it to production-quality standards.
Willingness to collaborate deeply with physics simulation, and engineering partners.
This Role Is Not a Fit If You…
Have only worked on single-scale wind models with no cross-scale integration.
Lack experience validating models against real-world or experimental data.
Prefer purely academic modeling without production constraints.
Resist collaboration or struggle to define clear modeling targets and success criteria.
Compensation:
The annual base salary range for full-time employees in this position is $170,000 to $220,000 + meaningful Equity Grant.
Compensation decisions are dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, an individual’s qualifications, location where the role is to be performed, internal equity, and alignment with market data.
Work Authorization
Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S. Stand does not sponsor new work visas for this role. We can consider candidates on TN visas, O-1A visas, or H-1B transfers with three years or more remaining.
Equal Opportunity Employment
Stand is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. We believe that diversity enriches the workplace, and we are committed to growing our team with the most talented and passionate people from every community.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals. If you require assistance
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.