Senior Software Engineer, Core Systems

We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.

The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis.

Our staff have worked at organizations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Tesla, Apple, Virgin Orbit, Astra, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, New Relic, Bridgewater, Raytheon, Disney Imagineering, and the US Army and Air Force, as well as research universities, startups, and small companies across a range of industries.

About the Job

Our core technology is the node, a device that produces energy in the ocean’s harshest conditions for years at a time without human maintenance or intervention. As a Senior Software Engineer on the Core Systems team, you will contribute to the design, development, and optimization of the onboard data systems.

You will work with our Core team and partner with Shore-side software engineers to build reliable data pipelines and storage systems that function in unpredictable marine environments. You will also work closely with our networking and security engineers to ensure onboard systems communicate reliably and remain free of critical vulnerabilities. Your work will directly shape how data is captured, moved, and understood onboard, enabling resilient autonomy and breakthrough operational insight for the rest of the company. As such, you should feel comfortable communicating effectively across the boundaries of teams and disciplines.

In addition to developing new capabilities, you will build on our existing development processes and tooling to further enhance the quality and reliability of our onboard software – expanding unit testing frameworks, automated integration tests, continuous deployment pipelines, and code reviews and documentation.

Candidates should have strong interpersonal skills and be able to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis. You will own your designs cradle-to-grave, from first concept through fabrication and deployment at sea. If you are an excellent engineer, regardless of your background, we want you to apply.

We strive to be the best engineering team on the planet and we compensate our team accordingly.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain the network-facing software layers that enable Node to communicate reliably with shore – from low-level connection handling to higher-level data exchange protocols.
• Design egress pipelines that use bandwidth efficiently, weighing tradeoffs between data fidelity, timeliness, and link constraints.
• Collaborate on APIs and schemas for control and data exchanges between subsystems, ensuring reliability is built in from the start.
• Partner with network engineers to ensure a cohesive strategy for how bandwidth is divided and prioritized among competing data streams, ensuring consistent allocation and fulfillment of bandwidth budget.
• Ensure that software degrades gracefully during connectivity loss or link degradation – including buffering, retry logic, and prioritized retransmission – so critical data isn't lost when links drop.
• Work with network and security engineers to review onboard software for vulnerabilities, harden network-facing services, and ensure our interfaces meet the company's security standards before deployment.
• Analyze system performance and implement optimizations for latency, throughput, and resource efficiency.
• Extend and improve existing unit testing frameworks, integration tests, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Strengthen code review, documentation, and general software engineering practices within the team.
• Participate in design reviews, architecture discussions, and cross-team technical collaborations.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience developing software.
• 3+ years of experience with data-intensive or mission-critical systems.
• Proficiency in a systems programming language.
• Proficiency with version control.
• Competency with CI/CD pipelines for automated tests and deployment.
• Experience building or maintaining network-facing software – handling connection lifecycles, protocol implementation, or communication reliability in production systems.
• Understanding of fundamentals in computer networking (L2–L4), transport protocols, congestion control, and distributed systems.
• Experience designing systems for constrained, high-latency, intermittent, and/or expensive links (e.g., satellite, maritime, remote ops).
• Familiarity with security principles for networked systems (authentication/authorization, encryption, key management).
• Ability to work in a fast-paced and self-starting atmosphere.
• Ability to communicate thoughtfully and empathetically with people from many different educational and professional backgrounds.
• Motivation and curiosity to learn a wide variety of concepts across many disciplines, not just software engineering!

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with real-time or safety-adjacent systems where reliability is critical.
• Background in robotics, aerospace, or marine systems with a focus on data processing.
• Familiarity with time-series databases, streaming analytics, and data pipelines for monitoring applications.
• Experience with containerized build environments for developing, testing, and deploying software.

The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed.

Additional Requirements

• Intermittently able to work longer hours and weekends to support critical needs. While we expect a lot of each other, we also offer a high degree of autonomy and work-life balance, including unlimited PTO and flexible working hours.
• Travel to vendors and test sites as needed
• Intermittently able to work longer hours and weekends to support critical needs. While we expect a lot of each other, we also offer a high degree of autonomy and work-life balance, including flexiblePTO and flexible working hours.

Compensation and Benefits

If hired for this full-time role, you will receive:

• Cash compensation of $175,000–$230,000.
• Equity in the company. We’re all owners and if we’re successful, this equity should be far and away the most valuable component of your compensation.
• A benefits package that helps you take care of yourself and your family, including:
  • Flexible paid time off
  • Health insurance (the company pays 100% of gold-level PPO plan for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Dental insurance (the company pays 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Vision insurance (the company pays 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Disability insurance (the company pays 100% for a policy to provide long-term financial support if you become disabled)
  • Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA
• Relocation assistance to facilitate your move to Portland (if needed).

Location

This is a hybrid position. The expectation is 1 week in the office per month minimum. Our offices, lab, and shop are located in Portland, Oregon.