Software Engineer - Data

About Us

At Saildrone, we sustainably explore, map, and monitor the oceans to understand, protect, and preserve our world. Saildrone 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 operate without the need for a crewed support vehicle. We work 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, we have been included on Fast Company’s annual list of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2022”, earned the 2022 Ocean Awards’ Innovation Award, won “Best Tech For Good” in the 2022 Timmy Awards, and were recognized by Andreessen-Horowitz’s American Dynamism 50 list of the “Top 50 companies kickstarting American renewal. Saildrone’s hurricane mission 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, St. Petersburg, FL, and Fall River, MA, and operate our missions worldwide. We are 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

• 3+ years of software engineering experience 
• Experience in data pipeline/platform software development in cloud environments ● Familiarity with pub/sub or stream processing technologies 
• Experience with SQL and relational databases 
• Familiarity with data warehouses, and querying structured and semi-structured data
• Experience optimizing backend services and designing REST APIs 

Desired skills and experience

• Expertise in Python or Node.js programming languages 
• Familiar with Protobuf or Parquet data file formats 
• Experience with developing and deploying distributed services with Docker/Kubernetes
• Experience with automation/orchestration tools like Ansible or Salt for executing commands on remote systems 
• 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 
• Knowledge of visualization tools such as Jupyter Notebooks, Tableau, AWS Quicksight, Streamlit 
• Experience building data pipelines for Machine Learning applications 
• Working knowledge of Athena/Presto/Trino, BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake, or Vertica data querying technologies 
• NoSQL experience with Cassandra, DynamoDB, Redis, or MongoDB 
• Familiar with Argo, Airflow, or Luigi workflow orchestration engines 
• Experience with serverless functions, such as AWS Lambda
• BS in Computer Science, Data Engineering or related field

Physical Requirements

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

Location: This position is in Alameda, CA. 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:

Interagency Public-Private Partnership Sends Uncrewed Saildrone to Explore Remote Alaskan Waters - NOAA OER (August 11, 2022)

An Unprecedented View Inside a Hurricane – EOS (May 6, 2022)

Meet the sailing robots trying to solve climate change – The Hill (Mar. 18, 2022)

They Sailed Into a Hurricane, Now these Unmanned Saildrones are Seeking Data on Our Carbon Uptake – CNN (Dec. 9, 2021)

Saildrone Catches a $100M C Breeze to Build More Robo-boats – TechCrunch (Oct. 18, 2021)

With A Sight, Sound And Radar Picture, Saildrone Could Build An AI Database Of Everything In The Ocean – Forbes (Aug. 16, 2021)

Changing Arctic Environment Could Also Change Technologies Needed to Protect It, Experts Say – SeaPower Magazine (Aug. 2, 2021)

Autonomous Research Vehicle Completes Ocean Crossing from San Francisco to Hawaii – Hydro International (July 13, 2021)

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.

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

Individuals who require employer sponsorship to remain employed in the United States now or in the future will not be considered for hire for certain positions.

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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