  The bulk photovoltaic effect in noncentrosymmetric materials is an intriguing
physical phenomenon that holds potential for high-efficiency energy harvesting.
Here, we study the shift current bulk photovoltaic effect in the transition
metal dichalcogenide MoS$_2$. We present a simple automated method to guide
materials design and use it to uncover a distortion to monolayer $2H$-MoS$_2$
that dramatically enhances the integrated shift current. Using this distortion,
we show that overlap in the Brillouin zone of the distributions of the shift
vector (a quantity measuring the net displacement in real space of coherent
wave packets during excitation) and the transition intensity is crucial for
increasing the shift current. The distortion pattern is related to the material
polarization and can be realized through an applied electric field via the
converse piezoelectric effect. This finding suggests an additional method to
engineer the shift current response of materials to augment previously reported
methods using mechanical strain.
