Data Scientist

About Avalanche Energy

Avalanche Energy is a Washington-based startup building compact, deployable fusion systems through rapid hardware iteration. Rather than pursuing fusion as a single grid-scale outcome, Avalanche develops transportable fusion machines designed to be built, tested, and operated on short cycles, turning real hardware into steady progress. This approach enables near-term applications that demand extreme energy density and endurance—starting with fusion neutron production for radioisotope power and other defense and space uses—while advancing the underlying fusion platform. Backed by U.S. government programs and a team experienced in delivering complex systems, Avalanche is focused on building fusion that runs in the real world, not just on paper.

Avalanche might be a fit for you if:

You enjoy building software that helps scientists and engineers answer difficult questions more quickly and consistently. You like turning exploratory analyses into reusable tools, and you take pride in writing clean, well-tested code that others can build upon. You are comfortable collaborating across disciplines, translating complex scientific ideas into maintainable software, and working in a fast-moving environment where the tools you build today will help drive tomorrow's experiments. Most importantly, you are excited by the opportunity to help a growing team learn faster by making scientific data easier to process, analyze, and understand.

About the Role

Avalanche is seeking a Data Scientist to expand our experimental data analysis capabilities by developing the software, data pipelines, and reusable tools that support scientific and engineering decision making across the company. Working at the intersection of science, software engineering, and data analysis, this role partners closely with scientists and engineers to develop, implement, and standardize the methods used to interpret experimental data.

Depending on the problem, analysis methods may originate from the Data Scientist, the scientific team, or be developed collaboratively. This role helps transform those methods into maintainable, well-tested, and reusable software while continuously improving the shared infrastructure that enables rapid, repeatable scientific learning. As our experimental programs continue to grow, this role will play an important part in helping teams analyze data more efficiently, compare results more consistently, and accelerate the pace of experimentation.

Responsibilities

• Work with scientists and engineers to define analysis approaches, quantify uncertainty, and communicate experimental results through clear visualizations and reports.
• Partner with diagnostic experts to develop analysis methods for experimental diagnostics as reviewed, maintainable, tested, and reusable Python modules.
• Develop and maintain shared scientific data-processing and analysis libraries that support experimental programs across the company.
• Collaboratively develop clear and effective scientific data visualizations.
• Support the transition of exploratory scripts into standardized analysis software.
• Define and evolve reusable scientific analysis frameworks, coding standards, and software patterns in partnership with scientists and engineers.
• Establish and maintain standards for code review, testing, documentation, packaging, and release management
• Review analysis code for maintainability, consistency, and correctness given the scientific objectives
• Identify opportunities to improve experimental workflows, data quality, and analysis efficiency through automation and better software tooling.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, physics or related technical field
• Significant experience developing software and data analysis tools for scientific or engineering applications.
• Experience developing and maintaining reusable Python packages
• Experience with automated testing, Git-based version control, and collaborative code review
• Experience working directly with scientists, engineers, or other technical subject matter experts to solve complex problems.
• Ability to work with a diverse team as well as operate independently, prioritize work, and make progress in ambiguous environments.
• Experience balancing immediate experimental needs with the development of reusable software and long-term technical infrastructure.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts comfortably with both deeply technical users and less technical stakeholders.
• Experience developing documentation, operational standards, training materials, and internal processes that improve team-wide performance.

Bonus Experience

• Fusion experience
• Experience working with scientific visualization, numerical computing, or statistical analysis libraries such as NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Plotly, or similar tools.
• Experience interfacing with scientific instrumentation
• Prior work in fast-paced R&D environments
• Experience with data storage systems such as s3
• Experience maintaining cloud infrastructure
• Familiarity with common data processing concepts such as fast Fourier transforms, smoothing algorithms, and error propagation
• Experience with SQL

Additional Considerations

Location: Prefer onsite to support in-person team.

Sites: Tukwila, Washington.

Travel: Occasional travel for team events as needed.

Schedule: Standard business hours, with flexibility during critical periods.

Benefits

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• 10 paid holidays and a company-wide December holiday break.
• Generous paid vacation and sick time.
• Small, tight-knit team with low barriers to action.
• Exposure to a wide range of challenging, hands-on engineering problems.
• Meaningful equity in the form of stock options.

We value people of all races, ethnicities, genders, ages, religions, and sexual orientations. We are an equal opportunity employer, and you do not need to match every listed qualification to apply. If you are excited about building real hardware and making difficult systems work, we encourage you to apply.