Senior Electrical Engineer

OceanComm, Inc. • Chicago, IL

43d • $140,000 - $175,000

About The Position

Underwater communication is one of the hardest wireless problems on Earth. Radio waves attenuate quickly underwater, so our systems use sound, much like whales and dolphins, to transmit high-bandwidth data, including video. We are seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer with deep experience in low-noise analog and mixed-signal electronics who is excited to build hardware for one of the last largely unexplored frontiers: the undersea world.
This is a high-ownership role on a small, fast-growing team. You will not be one engineer among hundreds working on a narrow subsystem; you will have direct visibility into the full product, from modem firmware and acoustic signal processing to undersea drones and customer deployments.
About Us
Underwater, the wireless transfer of a single picture used to take an hour. OceanComm brought to market wireless modems that transfer data 100 to 1,000 times faster. Legacy modems were largely status and command links; our modems can control undersea drones with live video feedback, fundamentally changing what operators can see, decide, and do underwater. Leading organizations in defense, offshore energy, and oceanographic research rely on OceanComm to keep their undersea systems connected.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent with 5+ years of experience designing, testing, and troubleshooting complex board designs
• Demonstrated ability to independently own complex electrical designs and drive them from initial concept through bring-up, validation, and system integration
• Strong experience designing low-noise analog and mixed-signal electronics, including areas such as analog front ends, ADC/DAC design, filtering, grounding, noise analysis, and high-dynamic-range signal chains
• Strong hands-on laboratory and debugging skills, including experience with oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, logic analyzers, DMMs, software debugging tools, current probes, and automated test setups
• Familiarity with common digital interfaces such as Ethernet, CAN, I2C, SPI, and USB
• Experience designing electronics around MCUs, DSPs, FPGAs, or similar programmable devices
• Proficient with Altium Designer or equivalent electronic design automation tools
• Experience designing for signal integrity, power integrity, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)
• Comfortable conducting worst-case circuit analysis
• Willingness to travel, with occasional periods up to 20% depending on project phase
• U.S. Person

Nice To Haves

• Experience with high-voltage electronics up to approximately 1 kV, including power MOSFETs, GaN HEMTs, and transformers
• Experience designing battery-powered systems
• Proficiency with C/C++ and embedded software development
• Experience developing products for rugged or safety-critical environments, such as automotive, aerospace, or defense

Responsibilities

• Own electronics from concept through production, including architecture, component selection, schematic and PCB design, board bring-up, validation, and system-level integration
• Design the low-noise analog and mixed-signal electronics at the heart of our next-generation acoustic modems, combining modern mixed-signal ICs with carefully tuned custom analog circuitry
• Debug difficult problems spanning analog, digital, power, firmware, and system boundaries
• Lead and participate in peer and cross-disciplinary design reviews
• Integrate and test our modems with undersea drones and other advanced maritime systems
• Keep up to date with emerging technologies and research in relevant fields to help inform engineering and design decisions

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and incentive stock options
• Paid vacation starting at 20 days per year, increasing with tenure
• Paid sick leave with carryover
• Flexible schedule with core hours
• Work closely with experienced engineers and technical leaders across disciplines
• Professional development support for conferences, books, courses, or technical training
• Hands-on work with advanced acoustic, embedded, and undersea robotics hardware

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior