Subsea Acoustics Engineer

Ulysses Inc. • San Francisco, CA

30d

About The Position

Ulysses is building the autonomy platform for the ocean with mass-deployable, fully autonomous surface and subsea robots with dual-domain, read-and-write capabilities. Our oceans are in trouble; we’ve neglected them, and we allow bad actors to misuse them. Ulysses will manage our oceans effectively, persistently, and cheaply. We're developing autonomous surface and subsea vehicles, robotics, and AI systems to tackle critical challenges across nature, infrastructure, and maritime security. Our first product line is a suite of autonomous drones and attachments that makes restoring seagrass ecosystems cheaper and easier. We are currently working with governments in the US and Australia and leading environmental groups like The Nature Conservancy. We are a Series A company backed by top VCs.

About the Role

We’re searching for an Acoustics Engineer to build the next generation of low-cost, high-performance underwater sensing—designed from day one for manufacturing scale. You’ll own core acoustic payloads and algorithms (DVL, MBES, Side Scan Sonar, USBL, and adjacent modalities) and turn them into robust, repeatable, calibratable products that can be produced in volume and deployed globally.

This is a hands-on, full-stack role spanning physics, signal processing, electronics, embedded software, mechanical integration, and production test. You will be part of the Ulysses Acoustics Team. You’ll work closely with robotics, autonomy, and manufacturing teams to ensure our acoustic systems are not only impressive in the lab but also reliable in the ocean and economically viable at scale.

Requirements

• You’re an ambitious self-starter with an insatiable drive to win.
• You have an entrepreneurial mindset and can think like a founder.
• You embrace a gotta go fast mindset and refuse to settle for “good enough.”
• You’re capable of working autonomously in dynamic environments.
• Strong fundamentals in underwater acoustics / sonar / signal processing
• Proven ability to develop working systems, not just theoretical ones
• Demonstrated experience shipping (or owning major subsystems of) acoustic products—ideally in DVL, MBES, Side Scan, USBL or closely related sonar systems
• Solid DSP + estimation skills (time/frequency domain analysis, filtering, detection, beamforming, Doppler, probabilistic performance metrics)
• Strong implementation ability in Python for R&D, and C/C++ (or similar) for embedded/real-time deployment
• Comfortable working across disciplines
• Hands-on approach to testing: designing experiments, building rigs, running field trials, debugging from raw waveforms to system behavior

Nice To Haves

• Experience with transducer design, array design, acoustic materials, packaging, and underwater connectors/sealing
• Experience with production test automation, calibration pipelines, and quality systems (e.g., ISO-9001 style processes)
• Prior work on AUV/ROV/USV platforms and navigation stacks (INS aiding, time sync, data association, mission reliability)
• Experience designing for harsh environments: pressure, corrosion, vibration, temperature, EMC/EMI

Responsibilities

• Own acoustic product development elements end-to-end: architect system elements, work with a team to prototype quickly, validate performance, and drive designs into production
• Design low-cost, performative sonar systems across one or more of: DVL (bottom/water-track velocity, aiding INS) MBES (bathymetry, obstacle/terrain mapping) Side Scan Sonar (imaging/classification support) USBL (relative positioning/tracking, aiding navigation)
• Develop signal processing + estimation pipelines: waveform design, matched filtering, Doppler estimation, beamforming, multipath/false return rejection, uncertainty characterization, and sensor fusion interfaces
• Build the hardware/software stack: transducer selection/design tradeoffs, analog front-end considerations, timing/synchronization, embedded compute constraints, interfaces (Ethernet, serial, CAN, PPS), firmware/drivers, and logging/observability
• Scale to production: cost-down iterations, DFM/DFT, supplier selection, manufacturing documentation, calibration procedures, automated test fixtures, yield and reliability improvements
• Test in the real world: tank/bench characterization, environmental testing, field deployments, sea trials, and structured performance reporting

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed