Internal Application: Manufacturing Engineer

About Us

At Saildrone, we sustainably explore, map, and monitor the oceans to understand, protect, and preserve our world. We provide real-time access to critical data from any ocean on earth, 24/7/365, and use proprietary software applications to transform that data into actionable insights and intelligence. Our fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), powered by renewable wind and solar power, have a minimal carbon footprint and operate without the need for a crewed support vessel. Saildrone works with governments, civil agencies, foundations, universities, and private companies around the globe to drive better information about our oceans and seas—from sailing into the eye of a category 4 hurricane to obtain new data about how storms intensify, collecting new CO2 data in hard-to-reach areas, and counting fish biomass to inform sustainable fishery management, to mapping the ocean floor and reducing illegal fishing and drug trafficking. As a result of our work, Saildrone has been included on Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, earned an Ocean Awards’ Innovation Award, won Best Tech For Good from the Timmy Awards, and was recognized by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism 50 list of the Top 50 Companies Kickstarting American Renewal. Our first-annual Atlantic hurricane mission with NOAA was included as one of The New York Times’ 21 Things That Happened for the First Time in 2021 and Popular Science's 100 Greatest Innovations of 2021.

We are based in Alameda, CA, with offices in Washington DC and St. Petersburg, FL, and operate our missions worldwide. Saildrone is backed by top-tier investors in the frontier tech and sustainability sectors, including Social Capital, Capricorn, Lux Capital, BOND Capital, and Emerson Collective.

This is an exciting opportunity with a fast-growing team at the cutting-edge intersection of big data services and autonomous hardware. You will be an integral part of a high-performing multi-disciplinary delivering high impact for humanity and future generations.

The Role

Saildrone's autonomous surface vehicles operate for unprecedented periods of time in the most unforgiving environments on the planet. From the inside of hurricanes to the frigid waters of the Arctic, the stresses they endure are immense. The technical execution of preparing the vehicles for their mission and rigorous root cause analysis must be performed with a high degree of skill and consistency. As a Technical Operations Engineer, you will be responsible for ensuring the technical outcome of the vehicles throughout their lifecycle by solving problems to support operations and production teams and improving the quality and reliability of the vehicles by facilitating faster product iteration and translating drone performance in the field into targeted design improvements.

You will fill a central role within the company and collaborate with a variety of teams in engineering, operations, and production. You will apply technical expertise to ensure operational excellence across our product line. You will need to develop and execute operational plans to sustain and improve Saildrone's systems at scale. You will translate messy, real-world data into actionable product and process improvements.

Responsibilities

• Develop a top-to-bottom understanding of complex sensors and embedded systems as they relate to an entire, functioning vessel.
• Provide internal customer service to supported production and operations teams to quickly resolve any technical issues they experience during production or bring-up.
• Lead software integration or “bring-up” of production components by troubleshooting the HW & FW.
• Build production tests to ensure that assembled components are built correctly and perform within performance specifications.
• Propose and implement solutions for issues, processes, and system architecture
• Help support new sensor and system integration to streamline the handoff of new products and features from engineering to operations by embedding with design teams, producing documentation, and training your peers
  

Required Skills

• At least two years of professional experience performing post-manufacture servicing of complex embedded systems or consumer products
• Willing and able to travel domestically and internationally as well as work extended hours when necessary
• Ability to independently apply knowledge of electrical diagrams/schematics, and mechanical systems to identify a problem with a product, determine the cause, and execute an appropriate repair

What You'll Do

• Develop a top-to-bottom understanding of complex sensors and embedded systems as they relate to an entire, functioning vessel.
• Provide internal customer service to supported production and operations teams to quickly resolve any technical issues they experience during production or bring-up.
• Lead software integration or “bring-up” of production components by troubleshooting the HW & FW.
• Build production tests to ensure that assembled components are built correctly and perform within performance specifications.
• Propose and implement solutions for issues, processes, and system architecture
• Help support new sensor and system integration to streamline the handoff of new products and features from engineering to operations by embedding with design teams, producing documentation, and training your peers

What We're Looking For

A top performer in this role will be highly motivated by and skilled in the following areas:

• Love to solve novel and exciting problems that arise in hardware, software, and networking
• Strong desire to learn new and complex systems, if you like puzzles this role is for you.
• An instinct for improving processes and workflows to reduce variation within a system
• Not satisfied by superficial explanations of a problem. Able to find the specific root cause so it can be mitigated to prevent future instances
• Comfortable digging through metrics, logs, and whatever else is available to triage and fix an incident
• Break down information silos by collaborating with others to solve problems, share knowledge, and provide feedback
• Can self-assess the needs of a system or team, and can be persuasive about the priority of the most important work
• Familiar with electrical, mechanical, and materials engineering concepts
• Able to context switch quickly to respond to new and urgent issues
• Comfortable obtaining data and diagnosing issues from software and networking platforms using command-line tools on a Linux OS.
• Able to write and understand basic shell scripts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of performing various diagnostic- and test-related tasks.
• Strong people skills and an ability to work with a wide variety of teams as a leader, and a follower
• Strong safety consciousness and the ability to use good judgment to assess and execute safe operations at home and in new and unfamiliar environments

Preferred Skills

Here's a non-exhaustive list of specific skills where prior knowledge and experience would lend themselves to high performance:

• Experience in a field engineer, test engineer, operations engineering or integration/prototype engineering role
• Experience applying concepts of continuous improvement and root cause analysis to scale operations within a start-up environment
• Experience with network and message protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP, CAN, RS-485, RS-232, SPI, I2C, routing, ACLs)
• Experience using APIs to interact with processes and components
• Experience using industry-standard CAD tools (NX, Solidworks, Fusion 360, EAGLE, KiCad, Altium)
• Experience leading and working in teams, including third-party contractors, to execute operational plans and deliver on contractual obligations in a field environment, on time and within budget.
• Able to write clear documentation, process standards, procedures, and work instructions to aid supported teams.
• Familiar with industry-standard project management tools (Jira, Confluence, Asana, Monday, etc.)
• Familiar with operations in a marine environment
  

Physical Requirements

• Must be able to stand, walk, use hands to grasp, push and pull, bend, lift up to 50 lbs, and reach with your hands and arms.
  
  

Location: This position is in Alameda, CA. Our waterfront office offers beautiful views of San Francisco Bay in always sunny Alameda. Even our walls have good karma, our offices mix software development with a hardware production line in the former airplane hangar used to film 'The Matrix'.

Benefits:

• Medical, dental and vision plans for you and your dependents.
• Short and relaxing ferry ride from the Ferry Building for SF residents
• Enhanced Parental Leave Programs
• Competitive benefits including excellent medical, life insurance, 401k plan
  
  

Catch up on the latest news about us:

The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea – The New York Times
Alameda's Saildrones collect hurricane data - KTVU Fox 2
Record Setting: Saildrone Explorer SD 1045 Entered into Guinness Book
Saildrone Takes the Wraps Off its Voyager Autonomous Research Vehicle – TechCrunch
An Underwater Mountain was Newly Discovered off California Coast – San Francisco Chronicle
The Quest for CO2: You Can’t Capture What You Can’t Find – Inside Unmanned Systems
Hacking the Anthropocene with Survivalist Robots [VIDEO] – Freethink
Here’s What Hurricane Fiona’s Surf Looked Like, from Atop a 50-foot Wave – The Washington Post
An Unprecedented View Inside a Hurricane – EOS
They Sailed Into a Hurricane, Now These Unmanned Saildrones are Seeking Data on Our Carbon Uptake – CNN
Saildrone Featured Videos Playlist