Technical Operations Engineer

About Us

With more than 2 million nautical miles sailed and 50,000 days at sea, Saildrone has earned the trust of governments worldwide. Our unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) deliver continuous, real-time intelligence in the toughest oceans on Earth—giving our partners faster awareness, stronger security, and a decisive edge at sea.

Our USVs are long-range, extreme-endurance platforms powered by advanced sensors and proprietary AI - they have been designed to operate where no crewed vessel can. They collect critical insights above and below the surface to support border security, law enforcement, naval operations, and undersea infrastructure protection.

Headquartered in Alameda, CA, with offices in Washington, DC, and global deployment hubs, Saildrone operates missions worldwide. Join a fast-moving, mission-driven team at the intersection of AI, autonomy, and defense technology—where data turns into intelligence, and intelligence drives action.

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.

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.

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

The salary range for this role is $100,200-$130,200 annually.

Individual compensation packages are based on geographic location, scope of the role, and relevant experience, among other factors.

Saildrone is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

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