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Technical Operations Engineer
Saildrone
IT, Operations, Education
Alameda, CA, USA
Posted on Jun 5, 2025
About Us
Saildrone is a maritime defense and oceanographic survey company creating a paradigm shift in how navies, law enforcement, governments, and commercial organizations obtain the real-time, accurate data required to monitor the maritime domain. Powered primarily by renewable wind and solar energy, Saildrone’s fleet of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) provides long-duration operations measured in months, not days. Saildrone USVs carry sophisticated sensors combined with proprietary AI algorithms to give a full picture of the maritime environment above and below the sea surface, supporting border protection, critical infrastructure security, and hydrographic survey. Saildrone has sailed more than 2,000,000 nautical miles from the High North to the Southern Ocean and spent over 50,000 days at sea in the harshest ocean conditions on the planet.
We are based in Alameda, CA, with offices in Washington DC and St. Petersburg, FL, and operate missions worldwide. This is an exciting opportunity with a fast-growing team at the cutting-edge intersection of big data services, autonomy, and AI. You will be part of a high-performing, multidisciplinary team delivering data, intelligence, and firepower for strategic superiority.
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.
What You'll Do
- Develop a top-to-bottom understanding of complex sensors and embedded systems as they relate to an entire, functioning system
- Provide internal customer service to supported production and operations teams to quickly resolve any technical issues they experience
- Build trust with cross-functional teams and lead root cause analysis to identify areas for improvement
- Propose and implement solutions for issues, processes, and system architecture
- Help evaluate the effectiveness of those solutions and other engineering developments by supporting system integration testing
- Provide on-call support to troubleshoot, diagnose and fix software, hardware, and networking issues on autonomous surface vehicles
- 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
- Participate in on-call rotations for high-impact, high-priority issue resolution
- Travel to locations all over the world to help ready and deploy drones for their missions
What We're Looking For
- Love to solve novel and exciting problems that arise in hardware, software, and networking
- Strong desire to learn new and complex systems
- Gratified by helping your peers succeed
- 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
- Good at ordering by likelihood of possible causes of an issue with imperfect or incomplete datasets
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
- 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.
- Maintain appropriate records and inventories. Possess organizational habits and a willingness to define, follow, and improve process and work standards.
- 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
- Experience in a field engineer, test engineer, operations engineering or integration/prototype engineering role
- Experience working within service-level objectives (SLI, SLO, SLA, Error Budget, Burn Rate)
- 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
- Willingness to support 25% travel, domestically and internationally. Able to work on your feet and at heights. Able to lift and carry 50lbs.
Location: This position is in Alameda, CA. Our waterfront office offers beautiful views of San Francisco Bay in always sunny Alameda.
Benefits:
- Paid time off, including vacation, bereavement, jury duty, sick time and parental leave
- Comprehensive and competitive medical, dental and vision plans, and HSA with employer matching.
- Company sponsored life insurance
- Stock Options
- Annual stipend for continued learning and development
- Quarterly company BBQs at our Alameda HQ (bring your friends and family!)
- Free Bay Area Public Transportation via AlamedaTMA with the BayPass Clipper Card
- Plenty of snacks in our 3 office locations
- Dog-friendly work environment
A reasonable estimate of the current range is $000,000-$000,000 annually.
Catch up on the latest news about us:
The British Engineer Behind the US Navy’s High-tech Ocean Drones – The Times of London
Denmark to Field Unmanned Vessels for Monitoring Busy Shipping Routes – Defense News
Counter-drug Sea Drones Utilized by Navy as Trump Ramps Up Military Resources at the Border
Saildrone, Palantir Partner to Use AI to Streamline USV Manufacturing, Operations – Breaking Defense
An Underwater Mountain was Newly Discovered off California Coast – San Francisco Chronicle
USVs Could Deter IUU Fishing – USNI Proceedings
TIME 100 Most Influential Companies 2024: Saildrone
Saildrone Featured Videos Playlist
Individual compensation packages are based on geographic location, scope of the role, relevant experience, and the ability to deal with complexity and problem solve within our organization, among other factors.
All employees are required to provide proof of authorization to work in the U.S. within their first 3 days of work. Please note that the Company does not sponsor employees for work visas or permanent resident cards to work in the U.S. If you need sponsorship for a work visa or green card, you will not be qualified for employment with Saildrone.
We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Any unsolicited resumes/candidate profiles submitted through our website or to personal email accounts of employees of Saildrone are considered property of Saildrone and are not subject to payment of agency fees.
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