Quartermaster is building the world's most comprehensive maritime intelligence platform. Our SmartMast™ system transforms commercial and civilian vessels into a persistent, distributed sensing network—combining HD video, AI, radar, RF sensing, and AIS to deliver real-time maritime domain awareness at global scale. With 600+ sensors deployed across 25+ countries and more than 400,000 vessels identified outside of AIS, we are setting a new standard for what ocean surveillance and safety can look like. We are a mission-driven, high-velocity team building dual-use technology for defense agencies, coast guards, and commercial maritime operators.
Job DescriptionWe are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our core engineering team and help build the distributed platform that powers Quartermaster’s global sensing network. This role sits at the heart of our stack—spanning cloud infrastructure, data ingestion pipelines, device management, and the services that connect our fleet of 600+ deployed SmartMast units to our web portal and analytics systems. You will work across layers of the system, take ownership of complex technical problems, and ship solutions that operate at sea-scale.
Key ResponsibilitiesDesign, build, and maintain distributed cloud services on AWS that ingest, process, and route high-volume sensor data from a globally deployed fleet.
Develop and operate device management infrastructure for SmartMast units, including OTA firmware and software deployment pipelines.
Build reliable, low-latency data ingestion systems that handle concurrent streams from cameras, radar, SDR, AIS receivers, and GPS modules.
Collaborate with the Edge Software and Platform teams to define APIs and protocols that bridge vessel-side and cloud-side systems.
Design for fault tolerance and graceful degradation in environments with constrained or intermittent connectivity (Starlink, LTE, mesh).
Instrument, monitor, and improve system reliability, latency, and cost efficiency across production services.
Participate in architecture discussions and contribute to engineering standards, code review practices, and technical documentation.
Mentor junior engineers and help shape a culture of high-quality, intentional software development.
5+ years of professional software engineering experience building production distributed systems.
Strong command of Spring Boot for building robust microservices; additional proficiency in Python or C++ a plus.
Deep experience with AWS services: IoT Core, Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, SQS/SNS, CloudFormation or CDK.
Solid understanding of distributed systems concepts: message queues, eventual consistency, idempotency, and service observability.
Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes or ECS); familiarity with CI/CD tooling.
Strong debugging and systems-thinking skills; comfortable reasoning across network boundaries, hardware constraints, and cloud services simultaneously.
High standards for code quality, test coverage, and documentation.
Bonus Points:
Experience with IoT device fleets, OTA update systems (Mender, AWS IoT Jobs), or embedded-to-cloud architectures.
Familiarity with geospatial data processing, AIS signal handling, or maritime/defense operational environments.
Background with mesh networking, low-bandwidth communication protocols, or satellite-connected systems.
Experience contributing to security-conscious system design in regulated or government-adjacent environments.
Distributed team environment working asynchronously.
Start-up atmosphere with autonomy given to engineers
In office and flexible hours
Skills Required
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building production distributed systems.
- Strong command of Spring Boot for building robust microservices.
- Proficiency in Python or C++ (additional proficiency a plus).
- Deep experience with AWS services: IoT Core, Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, SQS/SNS, CloudFormation or CDK.
- Solid understanding of distributed systems concepts: message queues, eventual consistency, idempotency, and observability.
- Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes or ECS); familiarity with CI/CD tooling.
- Strong debugging and systems-thinking skills across network boundaries, hardware constraints, and cloud services.
- High standards for code quality, test coverage, and documentation.
- Experience with IoT device fleets, OTA update systems (Mender, AWS IoT Jobs), or embedded-to-cloud architectures.
- Familiarity with geospatial data processing, AIS signal handling, or maritime/defense operational environments.
- Background with mesh networking, low-bandwidth communication protocols, or satellite-connected systems (Starlink, LTE).
- Experience contributing to security-conscious system design in regulated or government-adjacent environments.
What We Do
Quartermaster AI leverages cutting-edge AI and robotics to create distributed open-ocean systems that enhance maritime domain awareness. Their systems enable vessels to sense, compute, and communicate, aiming for a safe and sustainably managed ocean.
