Senior Staff Software Engineer, Data

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

Data is Everything. The Saildrone fleet of ocean-going vessels tirelessly sails the world's seas piecing together the world's largest high-resolution meteorological oceanic dataset at a rate, precision and price point that was previously impossible. With NOAA approved data precision and demonstrated reliability, two other datasets that you'll be working with are ocean floor depth mapping and maritime domain awareness, which is anything associated with the safety and security of our oceans, such as illegal fishing and drug enforcement. You will build the data pipeline powering both our external APIs and internal business intelligence about our drones. An effort spanning architecture, development, reliability, and scale, it is critical in our mission to deliver planetary insights.

Required Skills and Experience

• 10+ years of relevant experience and demonstrated track record of tech leading large cross- functional projects
• Bachelors or Masters degree in computer engineering, computer science, or other related field
• Experience in data pipeline/platform services and customer-facing APIs in cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.)
• Working knowledge of relational databases (Postgres, AWS Aurora, PostGIS)
• Experience with streaming technologies such Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Flink
• Familiar with Argo, Dagster, Airflow, or Luigi workflow orchestration engines

Desired Skills and Experience

• Experience working with time series, geospatial, geo-temporal, or map-tile data would be a huge bonus
• Experience with data from drones or robots, such as those from ROS-based systems, would also be very helpful
• Expertise in Python or NodeJS programming languages
• Familiar with Parquet or Protobuf data file formats
• Working knowledge of Athena/Presto, BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake, or Vertica
• Experience with serverless functions, such as AWS Lambda
• NoSQL experience - DynamoDB, Redis, Influx, Timescale
• Knowledge of visualization tools such as Jupyter Notebooks, Tableau, Streamlit
• Experience with developing and deploying distributed services with Docker
• Built data pipelines for Machine Learning applications

Physical Requirements: Work is performed on a computer and requires ability to operate a keyboard and other peripheral devices.

Location: For candidates in the Bay Area, this position is hybrid in Alameda, CA (minimum of 3 days per week in office). We are also open to this role as a Remote position for candidates outside of the Bay Area.
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
An Underwater Mountain was Newly Discovered off California Coast – San Francisco Chronicle
Hacking the Anthropocene with Survivalist Robots [VIDEO] – Freethink
An Unprecedented View Inside a Hurricane – EOS
Saildrone’s First Aluminum Surveyor Autonomous Vessel Splashes Down for Navy Testing – TechCrunch
USVs Could Deter IUU Fishing – USNI Proceedings
Saildrone Vehicles Track Whales around Offshore Wind Power – Workboat
Mullen, Former Joint Chiefs Chairman, to Lead Board for Unmanned Tech Firm Saildrone – Breaking Defense
The Navy Is Using Robot Ships to Deter Human Smuggling out of Haiti – Defense One
Saildrone's Quiet Voyage: Autonomous Vehicle Aids Great Lakes Fish Stock Study – Up North Live
Saildrone Featured Videos Playlist

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
At Saildrone, we value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes people from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We believe that a diverse and inclusive team leads to innovation and better problem-solving. We encourage applications from candidates of all genders, ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, disabilities, and backgrounds.
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.

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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