EVP, Marine Environmental Impact

We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.

The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and individual investors. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company's direction on a regular basis.

This is an opportunity to shape the development, environmental profile, and ultimate impact of a fundamentally new renewable energy technology with the potential to achieve planetary scale.

The ocean is not just a valuable renewable energy resource. It's a dynamic, interconnected, critically important ecosystem. Our ocean technologies must set a new bar for clean, low-impact renewable energy both in how they convert ocean energy and in how they're constructed, repaired, and eventually recycled.

As EVP, Marine Environmental Impact, you will help make Panthalassa's ocean energy platform one of the cleanest, lowest-impact energy technologies ever developed. Reporting directly to the CEO, you will work closely with our engineering teams, physicists, scientists, and marine operators to understand the interactions between our technology and the ocean environment and minimize the ecological impact of each successive technology iteration.

You will build a team focused on grounding Panthalassa's engineering and strategy in a deep empirical understanding of our effects on ocean ecosystems. You'll develop environmental standards and measurement practices suited for both pilot and large-scale deployments.

You'll build relationships with marine science organizations, nonprofits, universities, independent researchers, and other scientific institutions, enabling third-party research and scientific collaboration through data-sharing and joint research efforts.

Representing Panthalassa externally, you'll communicate our findings about our environmental footprint and about the environmental characteristics, potential advantages, and tradeoffs of open-ocean wave energy as compared to other planetary-scale energy options, such as conventional fossil-fuel energy systems.

Strong candidates will have a deep background in marine biology, oceanography, ecology, or a related field; experience studying anthropogenic impacts on the ocean; a passion for advising engineers on the development of new technologies; and significant experience communicating scientific findings to both public and academic audiences.

This role is ideal for someone who is passionate about ocean health, grounded in empirical research, intellectually curious, and excited by the opportunity to shape how a new technology platform interacts with the marine environment.

Company Strategy

• Build out and lead Panthalassa's internal environmental impact function as the company and its deployments scale
• Expand Panthalassa's scientific research strategy around environmental impact, including determining where the company will conduct research internally and facilitate independent research
• Help determine where scientific uncertainty should change company strategy, engineering priorities, or deployment plans

Environmental Impact Assessment and Mitigation

• Lead the scientific evaluation of how Panthalassa's open-ocean technologies interact with marine ecosystems, including identifying the most important environmental questions as the technology evolves
• Develop and implement environmental assessment protocols, monitoring strategies, and mitigation measures for at-sea deployments
• Establish environmental metrics and standards to evaluate successive generations of Panthalassa's technology and deployments
• Lead the documentation and publication of environmental research methods, findings, and uncertainties
• Develop approaches for independent scientific review and third-party validation of Panthalassa's environmental impact

Partnership with Engineering and Deployment Teams

• Collaborate with engineering and design teams on integrating environmental considerations into the design and operation of hardware
• Develop clear internal guidance so engineering teams can understand environmental tradeoffs early and…