Xylo Risk, Inc. Fire Simulations Engineer San Francisco, CA · Boulder, CO · Oakland, CA · Remote · Full time Company website

Apply for Fire Simulations Engineer

XyloPlan’s mission is to use science to guide community adaptation to wildfire in fire dependent landscapes to minimize losses, promote healthy ecosystems, and support successful economic markets. We combine speed-based fire behavior modeling with compelling storytelling to help communities properly prioritize wildfire resiliency efforts.

ABOUT XYLOPLAN

XyloPlan builds physics-based, community-scale wildfire risk modeling and simulation tools. Our Fire Pathways Architecture helps fire agencies, insurance carriers, reinsurers, utilities, and municipalities understand and reduce wildfire risk at the parcel level. We are a seed-stage company preparing for Series A in Q4 2026.

ROLE SUMMARY

We are looking for a Fire Simulations Engineer to support the science at the core of our platform: the physics-based model that simulates how "Fast Fires" move through a community under worst-case conditions. You will develop, calibrate, and extend our proprietary fire spread model. This position will cover the entirety of the simulation cycle, from data inputs through to working with our data engineer on outputs. Your work determines how accurately we represent fire behavior, ember transport, and urban conflagration, and it directly shapes the wildfire risk products we deliver to insurance carrier and fire agency customers.

REPORTING STRUCTURE

Reports to: Kevin Brashem (Director of Engineering)

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

- Develop, calibrate, and extend XyloPlan's proprietary physics-based fire spread and ember transport model

- Implement, configure, and run non-proprietary fire behavior models (e.g. FARSITE, FlamMap, ELMFIRE, WRF-Fire) for benchmarking and validation

- Optimize and execute validation studies that compare model output against observed fire behavior and historical fire events

- Translate fire science (combustion, fuel moisture, wind-driven spread, spotting) into performant, testable simulation code

- Build numerical methods and tooling to improve simulation accuracy, stability, and runtime at scale

- Validate and own terrain, vegetation, fuel, and weather inputs and updates

- Quantify and document model uncertainty to support defensible, customer-facing risk products

- Contribute to research direction and technical architecture as the engineering team scales

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

- 5+ years of professional experience in computational physics, numerical modeling, fire behavior modeling, or a closely related simulation discipline

- Strong proficiency in Python and at least one high-performance language (C++, Fortran, Rust, or similar)

- Demonstrated experience building, calibrating, or validating physics-based simulation models

- Solid foundation in numerical methods, computational fluid dynamics, or fire behavior

- Experience working with large scientific datasets and gridded/raster inputs

- Ability to reason from first principles about physical systems and defend modeling choices

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Direct experience with wildfire behavior modeling or fire spread simulation tools (FARSITE, FlamMap, ELMFIRE, WRF-Fire, QUIC-Fire)

- Background in combustion, atmospheric science, heat transfer, or wildland fire science

- Experience with parallel/distributed simulation

- Experience in an early-stage startup environment

- Peer-reviewed publication or applied research in fire behavior or natural hazard modeling

COMPENSATION

- Base salary: $155,000 - $190,000 (commensurate with experience)

- Equity: Stock option grant four-year vesting with one-year cliff

- Benefits: Health, dental, vision, unlimited PTO

- 401(k) available

LOCATION AND WORK MODEL

- Remote within California or Colorado (required)

- Strong preference for candidates who can join weekly in-person work sessions at a coworking space in the Bay Area or Boulder area

- Occasional travel to customer sites and conferences (~10%)

XyloPlan is an equal opportunity employer.