Pod Lead – Civil & Structural Engineering

Role: Pod Lead – Civil & Structural Engineering

Availability: 8 hours per day with an overlap of 4 hours with PST

Working Model: Remote

Duration: 4 weeks (with likely extension)

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Civil or Structural Engineering expert to lead a pod of trainers

building realistic, terminal-based technical tasks for Terminal Bench Science. You will review every

task your trainers produce for engineering correctness, reproducibility, and grader reliability, and

coach trainers to consistently deliver high-quality tasks.

Reporting Structure:

Reports to the Civil & Structural Engineering Team Lead. Leads a pod of approximately 5–10 trainers.

What you'll do:

• Review engineering tasks end to end, including problem statements, structural and

geotechnical models, load cases, simulation data, computational environments, reference

solutions, and automated tests.

• Validate tasks involving structural analysis, finite-element methods (FEA), earthquake and

wind engineering, structural dynamics, geotechnical modeling, hydraulics, hydrology,

transportation, and infrastructure systems.

• Ensure tasks require genuine multi-step engineering reasoning and reflect realistic civil and

structural engineering workflows.

• Verify engineering accuracy across units, equilibrium, boundary conditions, load

combinations, design codes, numerical stability, convergence, and safety factors.

• Validate computational models, solvers, dependencies, and simulation results for

reproducibility and technical correctness.

• Review automated graders to ensure they evaluate meaningful engineering outputs such as

forces, deflections, drifts, settlements, factors of safety, flow rates, and structural

performance.

• Identify technical errors, unrealistic assumptions, incorrect tolerances, and opportunities to

bypass engineering analysis.

• Provide clear, actionable feedback to task developers and track revisions through

completion.

• Mentor and support technical trainers, allocate work, monitor quality and productivity, and

resolve technical blockers.

• Maintain quality standards, technical documentation, and best practices across engineering

task development.

What we're looking for:

• Ph.D., postdoctoral experience, or equivalent advanced technical experience in Civil

Engineering, Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.

• Strong programming experience in Python, C/C++, Julia, Fortran, or MATLAB/Octave, with

proficiency in Linux environments.

• Hands-on expertise in at least one major area: structural analysis, FEA, earthquake

engineering, geotechnical modeling, or hydraulic/hydrological modeling.

• Strong understanding of engineering principles, numerical methods, simulation workflows,

and model validation.

• Working knowledge of engineering design standards such as ASCE 7, ACI, AISC, Eurocodes, or

IS codes.

• Experience reviewing complex technical work, engineering simulations, research outputs, or

computational models.

• Strong analytical judgment with the ability to identify technical inaccuracies, edge cases, and

flawed engineering assumptions.

• Experience mentoring, reviewing, or leading small technical teams.

• Excellent written communication skills for providing precise technical feedback and

documenting quality standards.

Nice to have:

• Experience with engineering simulation and analysis tools such as OpenSees/OpenSeesPy,

Code_Aster, CalculiX, FEniCS, Gmsh, PyNite, EPANET, SWMM, HEC-RAS, MODFLOW, SUMO,

QGIS, or GDAL.

• Familiarity with commercial engineering software such as SAP2000, ETABS, Abaqus, PLAXIS,

or STAAD.Pro.

• Experience with nonlinear time-history analysis, performance-based design, reliability

analysis, or structural health monitoring.

• Familiarity with Docker, Git, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.

• Experience developing or evaluating AI coding agents, terminal-based agents, or LLM

generated engineering solutions.

• Professional engineering licensure such as PE, SE, CEng, or equivalent.

• Industry experience working on buildings, bridges, transportation networks, water systems,

or major infrastructure projects.

• Prior experience in AI training, technical quality control, benchmark development, or

evaluation programs.

Offer Details:

• Commitments Required: At least 4 hours per day and minimum 40 hours per week with

overlap of 4 hours with PST.

• Employment type : Contractor assignment (no medical/paid leave)

• Duration of contract : 4 week [expected start date is next week]