Acoustic Researcher

About This Opportunity

We are representing a confidential European defense technology organization that is building advanced autonomous systems for maritime domain awareness. This is a founding-team role based in Paris, working at the intersection of underwater acoustics, signal processing, and modern AI techniques.

Our client is developing a distributed sensor network combining unmanned underwater vehicles, autonomous surface platforms, and seabed installations to provide real-time understanding of subsurface activity. As their first Acoustic Researcher, you will establish the physics foundation that enables their machine learning systems to interpret complex underwater environments.

Responsibilities

• Model underwater sound propagation across realistic ocean conditions to support synthetic data generation for AI training
• Characterize and classify acoustic signatures from maritime targets, building ground-truth datasets for multimodal models
• Design sensor array geometries and deployment strategies to maximize information extraction from distributed autonomous platforms
• Collaborate directly with AI engineers on physics-informed learning approaches and model architectures
• Validate theoretical models against real-world acoustic data collected from marine deployments
• Define the technical roadmap for acoustic processing capabilities as a founding team member

What We're Looking For

• Deep expertise in underwater acoustics, sonar systems, ocean acoustics, or acoustic signal processing—typically PhD-level research experience
• Strong command of statistical signal processing including detection theory, estimation theory, array processing, and time-frequency analysis
• Fluency in Python (NumPy/SciPy) for modeling, simulation, and large-scale data analysis
• Builder mentality with focus on deployed systems rather than theoretical research alone
• Comfort validating ideas against real experimental data from field deployments
• Bonus: experience applying machine learning to acoustic signals, prior work in naval or defense domains
• Authorization to work with defense-related projects in France

How We Work With You

When you apply through Get A Job.ai, one of our specialist recruiters will screen your background and discuss the opportunity in detail. We then coordinate introductions with the client's technical leadership. Please note that we manage the entire process—do not contact the employer directly. All communication flows through our talent team to ensure a structured and confidential experience.

Pay

Compensation details will be discussed during the screening process and are competitive for a founding engineering role in the European defense technology sector, including meaningful equity as an early team member.

Equal Opportunity

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