The Position
Saildrone is seeking a Vice President of Software to lead the software organization powering our autonomous maritime platform. Reporting directly to the CEO, this is a senior role that partners closely with the CEO to define, evolve, and execute Saildrone’s software strategy in support of the company’s mission and business objectives.
You will own the execution and organizational leadership of the software ecosystem — from onboard autonomy and vehicle control to data pipelines, analytics, ML/ AI, cyber security and our customer-facing product and API eco system — while working with the CEO to align software priorities with company strategy.
This is a highly collaborative executive role for a strong leader who thrives at the intersection of vision, execution, and real-world operational systems in a national security and defense environment
Strategic Partnership
Partner directly with the CEO to co-create Saildrone’s long-term software vision, strategy, and priorities.
Provide clear, candid input on tradeoffs between speed, capability, reliability, risk, and scalability.
Ensure software strategy remains tightly aligned with company objectives, customer needs, the in-house electro-mechanical implementation and operational realities.
Organizational & People Leadership
Lead and scale a multidisciplinary software organization spanning autonomy, embedded systems, ML/AI, cloud, data infrastructure, and applications.
Build and mentor a strong leadership bench across directors, managers, and senior technical leaders.
Establish a culture of accountability, ownership, collaboration, and engineering excellence.
Recruit, retain, and develop world-class software talent in a highly competitive market.
Technical Execution & Delivery
Own the end-to-end software lifecycle from system architecture through development, deployment, and sustained operations.
Ensure on-time delivery of secure, reliable, high-performance software software products, critical for operations of defense-grade weaponized platforms.
Drive adoption of modern engineering practices including automated testing, observability, and security-by-design.
Oversee and help guide architectural decisions across the stack, including onboard autonomy, edge computing, and large-scale data platforms, on and off our platforms.
Cross-Functional Leadership
Partner closely with Hardware, Product, TPM, Security, and Operations leaders to deliver tightly integrated solutions.
Support go-to-market and customer engagements by translating software capabilities into differentiated mission outcomes.
Who You Are
15+ years of experience in software engineering, including significant leadership of complex organizations.
Proven success delivering mission-critical, distributed, autonomous, or data-intensive systems at scale.
Comfortable co-setting direction while independently driving execution.
Deep technical fluency across modern software architectures, autonomy, data systems, and real-time or embedded environments.
Executive presence with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Why Saildrone
Saildrone is the most sophisticated, reliable and widely deployed autonomous surface vehicle on the planet. We are deployed globally for US and international naval forces, in both passive ISR roles, through to kinetic combat scenarios.
This is a pivotal time in the defense sector, with the aggressive transition to unmanned and autonomous solutions. The opportunities are endless in an industry with a rapidly evolving, trillion dollar TAM.
Be on the winning team, creating world class solutions for global maritime security and delivering the Navy of the future.
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
Individual compensation packages are based on geographic location, scope of the role, and relevant experience, among other factors.
#LI-Onsite
Top Skills
What We Do
Saildrone provides comprehensive turnkey data solutions for maritime security, ocean mapping, and ocean data. The company provides real-time access to critical data from any ocean on earth, 24/7/365, and uses proprietary software applications to transform that data into actionable insights and intelligence. Saildrone’s fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), powered by renewable wind and solar power, have a minimal carbon footprint and are designed to make ocean intelligence cost-effective at scale. Saildrones operate 24/7/365, without the need for a crewed support vehicle, and have sailed over 750,000 nautical miles from the Arctic to the Antarctic and spent more than 17,000 days at sea in the harshest ocean conditions on the planet.
