Sofar is the leading ocean intelligence platform. We’ve built the world’s largest real-time ocean network, turning billions of measurements into insights trusted by scientists, governments, and shipping fleets. Our technology makes the ocean more predictable and sustainable, helping customers save costs, cut emissions, and unlock insights that were once out of reach.
You will be a key contributor to the embedded firmware design and implementation of all our hardware products: Spotter, Smart Mooring, next generation platforms and Sofar’s new open hardware connectivity stack — Bristlemouth https://www.bristlemouth.org. You thrive in small and collaborative multidisciplinary teams, and are eager to pitch in to debug and solve gnarly issues. You take pride in your craft. You strive to improve the health of our oceans and planet by shipping a cohesive, elegant and impactful product.
This role will be working onsite from our Pier 28 office at least 3 days per week and reporting to our Firmware Engineering Manager.
Some projects you’ll be a part of:
- Building new Bristlemouth integrations for Spotter and Smart Mooring and evolving the open source Bristlemouth core APIs
- Collaborating cross-functionally to build new features on existing platforms
- Developing next generation platforms
- Advanced research and experiments with new and emerging technologies
- Integrated system testing, open ocean deployments, and the occasional throwing of things out of airplanes to see what breaks
- Design and implement efficient and maintainable FreeRTOS firmware with automated unit and integration tests in a mix of C and C++
- Break down complex efforts into parallelizable work streams for your team
- Implement host-side test, analysis and automation tools in Python
- Participate in code reviews, brainstorms and whiteboard sessions with your team
- Write crystal clear specifications and documentation for both external users and internal colleagues
- Work alongside electrical and mechanical engineers in designing, integrating, testing and debugging systems
- Advocating for the highest leverage features and fixes in product prioritization conversations
- Execute frequent releases for internal proprietary firmware as well as open source Bristlemouth firmware, following test plans, building installers, writing release notes, and announcing the releases in friendly and inviting communications for wide audiences
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills
- Strong systems thinking ability
- Solid foundation of software architecture principles
- At least 5 years of professional embedded firmware/software experience
- Prior experience as a tech lead for a firmware team
- Fluent in embedded C and C++
- Comfortable in Python
- Experience with FreeRTOS
- Breadth of technology experience including multiple embedded platforms
- An understanding of common hardware peripherals and interfaces
Bonus Points
- Experience with multiple forms of radio telemetry
- Experience with IPv6 networking
- Experience with ARM Cortex-M0, M4, and M33 cores
- Past work in IoT, robotics, drones and/or automotive products
- A passion for or connection to the ocean
Estimated Salary Range
- $160,000 - $190,000
- The range listed is what we reasonably expect to pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and may be modified in the future. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, experience, and equity package.
Sofar's Commitment to Climate Justice
We at Sofar Ocean acknowledge that careers in the marine sciences “... have traditionally been, and remain, non-diverse work environments”, thereby limiting the entry and prosperity of underrepresented groups in the space. (Johri et al., 2021) Many of these same groups are disproportionately affected by climate change, and are often excluded from decision-making that directly address their interests and needs.
We are committed to addressing these climate injustices and highly encourage people who identify as women, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) to apply.
It is the responsibility of every employee to contribute to a positive work environment through cooperative and professional interactions with co-workers, customers, and vendors.
Equal Employment OpportunityAll qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.
Top Skills
What We Do
Sofar connects the world's oceans to power a more sustainable future. Sofar unlocks ocean data at scale. We deployed hundreds of Spotters globally to create the world’s largest privately-owned network of ocean sensors that collects 1.5 million real-time observations daily. Our team of ocean scientists assimilates this real-time data into our marine weather forecasts, which are up to 50% more accurate than traditional models.
In maritime shipping, we use these high-accuracy forecasts and vessel performance models to provide optimized guidance and save ships time, fuel, and emissions. We also equip researchers, operators, and innovators with our devices and data to power marine research and sustainable commercial solutions. Customers access data from our global sensor network and deploy our extensible Spotter platform to collect real-time surface and subsurface observations.
Sofar’s team of engineers, ocean scientists, and business professionals is based in San Francisco, California.
