Saronic Mission Operations Engineer responsible for deployment, validation, and iterative improvement of autonomous surface vessels. Supports field tests, real-time troubleshooting, and remote technical authority in the Joint Operations Center.
Responsibilities
How you support the mission
Develop deep understanding of vehicle HW and SW architecture, and how the vehicle operates as an integrated system.
Lead planning and execution of structured field tests for vessel performance pertaining to autonomous navigation, perception, communications, and sensor integration, among other vessel functionalities.
Diagnose and perform real-time troubleshooting of autonomy, networking, and onboard hardware or software during test events.
Stand watch in the Joint Operations Center, maintaining situational awareness across concurrent vessel operations through live telemetry, video, and C2 feeds; detect, characterize, and escalate anomalies before they become mission-impacting.
Serve as the remote technical authority during live operations — triage autonomy, networking, and HW/SW faults from the JOC and direct afloat and shoreside teams to resolution under time pressure and degraded comms.
Support JOC watch rotations, including nights, weekends, and on-call coverage during test campaigns and customer operations; execute disciplined shift handovers and maintain accurate watch and event logs.
Implement solutions for testing, safety of vessel operations, and system robustness to maximize efficiency.
Own data logging and telemetry monitoring systems; ensure data integrity for post-test analysis.
Contribute to root cause corrective action (RCCA) and issue triage workflows after field anomalies, with reporting to relevant review boards to eliminate repeat issues.
Support day-to-day operation of autonomous vessels and support craft, using telemetry and onboard diagnostics to diagnose issues and improve reliability.
Ensure testing aligns with DoD performance, compliance, and safety standards when applicable.
Qualification
Willingness to support a watch rotationExperience in an operations centerSystems engineering experience
Required
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
1+ years of hands-on engineering experience (design teams and previous internships qualify)
Willingness to support a watch rotation, including nights, weekends, and on-call periods during active operations
Up to 50% travel (moved it up from Preferred Qualifications)
Preferred
Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills (HW/SW) and ability to work effectively in challenging field conditions such as off-shore in open water
Experience and knowledge of best practices in planning and execution of complex test operations involving autonomous systems
Experience in an operations center, watch floor, mission control, TOC, or NOC environment - including shift handover discipline, event logging, and escalation under time pressure
Familiarity with C2 and telemetry visualization tooling (e.g., Grafana, Nominal, Foxglove, ROS-based tooling) and building operator-facing dashboards or alerting
Knowledge of networking protocols and communication systems used in autonomous vessels
Experience operating over constrained or contested links (SATCOM, LTE, RF mesh) and troubleshooting remotely through intermittent connectivity
Systems engineering experience, ability to understand multi-disciplinary integrated systems
Experience with sensor integration such as EO/IR, radar, IMU, and data processing
