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

Saildrone's autonomous surface vehicles operate for unprecedented periods of time in the most unforgiving environments on the planet. From inside of hurricanes to the frigid waters of the Arctic, the stresses they endure are immense. Assembling these vehicles for their mission and maintaining the fleet for the mission duration must be performed with a high degree of skill and consistency. As a Project Engineer, you will be responsible for keeping our team of Vehicle Assembly and Service Technicians stocked and equipped to meet challenging deadlines, identifying schedule risk early, and documenting the work performed to serve as a reliable database for fleet condition.

You will collaborate with a variety of teams in engineering, operations, and production. You will find and work through organizational friction points and keep the teams aligned to the company milestones. You will need to develop and execute assembly and service plans to sustain and improve Saildrone's systems at scale. You will become an invaluable member of the team, hold our common deadlines, and execute at a higher level of excellence with each iteration.

What You'll Do

• Schedule and work planning across multiple vehicle classes, configurations, and customer missions.
• Provide support to motivated and talented assembly technicians and field engineering teams, ensuring teams have everything needed to complete their objectives.
• Help the team meet schedules through labor, material and equipment planning and sourcing.
• Cross-functional coordination with Production, Engineering, Procurement, and Operations to set priorities and identify schedule blockers.
• Develop and implement new work processes and procedures.
• Support the management of change by providing feedback to engineering and documenting changes made in the field.
• Develop work plans, tool and equipment requirements, and support the deployment of our traveling service technicians.
• Ensure the team follows inventory control processes.
• Seek opportunities for productivity, safety, and quality improvements.
• Willing and able to travel domestically and internationally as well as work extended/weekend hours, when necessary.
• Improve the process flow and shop organization using best practices in Lean.
• Develop and improve work instructions and improving standardization of work practices.
• Drive quality in work execution, developing QPIs and supporting RCA process.

What We're Looking For

A top performer in this role will be highly motivated by and skilled in the following areas:

• Driven to develop and drive team towards challenging milestones.
• Draws professional satisfaction for coordinating teams to build complex hardware products.
• Gratified by helping your peers succeed.
• Sense of ownership of a successful outcome, even if it means extra work to unblock your team.
• Instinct for improving process and workflows to reduce variation within a system.
• Intolerant of schedule slippage, production inefficiencies, rework, or missed deadlines.
• Willing to lead by example with work ethic and dedication to safety and quality.
• Identify problems and take the initiative to find resolution and implement the necessary process improvements.
• Can self-assess the needs of a team and determine appropriate priorities.
• Careful listener to subject-mater experts and experienced service technicians.

Required skills and experience

Skills that are necessary to executing the core functions of this role are listed below.

• 3+ years of professional experience in manufacturing, fabrication, marine, construction, or engineering project management.
• Experience managing technicians, engineers, or craft personnel.
• Ability to create schedules, identify risks, and find resolution to any issues.
• Highly motivated with a strong sense of pride for the work performed by the team.
• Demonstrated commitment to safety and quality.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills. Able to write clear documentation, process standards, procedures, and work instructions to aid supported teams.
• Ability to meet deadlines, goals and objectives independently and as part of a team.
• Capable of supervising and inspecting work in the field which can include dockside work and areas with physical access constraints.
• Experience in high-configurability production or project management.
• Strong people skills and an ability to work with a wide variety of teams as a leader and a follower.
• High level of organization and attention-to-detail. Track record of establishing and owning databases, document control process, project files, or quality records.

Desired skills and experience

• Here's a non-exhaustive list of specific skills where prior knowledge and experience would lend itself to high performance:
• Prior experience in a project engineer, field engineer, project manager, superintendent, team leader, senior technician within the fabrication, construction, automotive, aerospace, maritime, manufacturing, or equipment service industries.
• Professional experience managing vehicle fleet service requirements. Familiarity working under industrial, regulatory or international quality standards and constraints (ISO9001, ABS, AS9100, OSHA 1910)
• Experience leading and working in teams, to include third-party contractors, to execute operational plans and deliver on contractual obligations in a field environment, on time and within budget.
• Experience applying enterprise project management and collaboration tools (Atlassian preferred).
• Experience with procurement and/or inventory management systems (Netsuite preferred).
• Comfortable with tools and equipment required for craft work as well as installing, servicing or troubleshooting mechanical/electrical systems.
• Experience providing feedback to engineering for design changes or improvements.
• Experience inspecting as-found conditions or completed production work.
• Experience with paint or composite work.
• Exposure to heavy equipment and rigging work execution.

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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