Technical Operations Engineer - Mission Watchfloor

Saildrone•Washington, DC

34d•$100,000 - $150,000•Onsite

About The Position

As a Watchfloor Technical Operations Engineer you will serve as the front line of technical defense for Saildrone's global fleet. You'll sit at the center of live operations, monitoring system health, diagnosing issues, and responding rapidly to ensure our vehicles continue delivering critical data to customers around the world. During business hours, you'll be stationed on the watchfloor alongside mission operators, providing real-time technical overwatch across hardware, software, and network systems. Outside of business hours, you'll participate in an on-call rotation that ensures 24/7 coverage for the fleet. Your actions will directly influence Saildrone's most important operational metrics and revenue-generating capability. This is a role for someone who thrives in fast-moving, high-stakes environments. You'll be the person everyone counts on when a vehicle goes offline mid-mission, when a new payload misbehaves, or when a root cause needs to be identified quickly. If you take pride in being the one who keeps the system running - the quiet hero behind every successful mission - this is where you belong.

Requirements

2+ years in a field support, systems integration, operations engineering, or technical watchfloor environment.
Ability to independently apply knowledge of electrical diagrams/schematics, and mechanical systems to identify a problem with a product, determine the cause, and execute an appropriate repair.
Familiar with electrical, mechanical, and materials engineering concepts.
Able to context switch quickly to respond to new and urgent issues.
Comfortable obtaining data and diagnosing issues from software and networking platforms using command-line tools on a Linux OS.
Strong understanding of electrical, mechanical, and networking fundamentals, and how these disciplines interact within complex embedded systems for diagnostics, log parsing, and system interrogation.
Proven ability to interpret telemetry, logs, and system metrics to diagnose complex performance issues.
Basic scripting ability (Bash, Python, or similar) to automate repetitive diagnostics or data-gathering tasks.
Maintain appropriate records and inventories. Possess organizational habits and a willingness to define, follow, and improve process and work standards.
Strong people skills and an ability to work with a wide variety of teams as a leader, and a follower
Willingness to work flexible hours, including participation in an off-hours on-call rotation for fleet continuity.

Nice To Haves

Experience in field engineering, test engineering, operations engineering, or integration/prototype roles.
Experience in mission operations, NOC, or remote monitoring environments.
Knowledge of service-level objectives and metrics (SLI, SLO, SLA, Error Budget, Burn Rate).
Experience applying continuous improvement and root cause analysis to scale operations in a start-up environment.
Familiarity with network and message protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP, CAN, RS-485, RS-232, SPI, I2C, routing, ACLs) and using APIs to interact with processes and components.
Experience with autonomous systems, marine electronics, or sensor payloads.
Proficiency in industry-standard CAD tools (NX, Solidworks, Fusion 360, EAGLE, KiCad, Altium).
Experience leading teams, including third-party contractors, to execute operational plans and deliver on contractual obligations on time and within budget.
Strong documentation skills: writing process standards, procedures, and work instructions.
Familiarity with project management tools (Jira, Confluence, Asana, Monday, etc.).
Experience in marine operations.

Responsibilities

Develop a top-to-bottom understanding of complex sensors and embedded systems as they relate to an entire, functioning system.
Monitor live vehicle operations across the global fleet, providing real-time technical overwatch using telemetry and diagnostic tools to proactively identify anomalies and emerging issues.
Provide internal customer service to supported mission execution teams to quickly resolve any technical issues they experience, including performing readiness reviews and pre-deployment checks to ensure vehicles are fully mission-capable.
Build trust with cross-functional teams and participate in root cause analysis to identify areas for improvement
Deliver structured technical feedback into engineering, helping to shape long-term fixes, design revisions, and reliability improvements.
Provide on-call support to troubleshoot, diagnose, and fix software, hardware, and networking issues on autonomous surface vehicles
Participate in on-call rotations for high-impact, high-priority issue resolution
Develop and maintain troubleshooting playbooks, documentation, and tools to speed up incident response and improve team consistency.
Contribute directly to fleet reliability metrics, maintaining accountability for vehicle uptime, mission success rates, and incident resolution performance.

Benefits

Paid time off, including vacation, bereavement, jury duty, sick time and parental leave
Comprehensive and competitive medical, dental and vision plans, and HSA with employer matching.
Company sponsored life insurance
Stock Options
Annual stipend for continued learning and development

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