Vehicle Robotics Software Engineer

About Seasats:

We are a nimble, highly technical business that provides defense, scientific, and commercial customers with maritime robotics solutions. Our primary products are autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) built to carry sensors at sea for months at a time.

The company is located in sunny San Diego and includes talented engineers, builders, tinkerers, and business architects. Internally, our work culture is hard working but fun. Externally, we’ve built a reputation for being professional, knowledgeable, and dedicated to getting the job done. For more info, check out seasats.com.

Role: Vehicle Robotics Software Engineer

Location: San Diego, CA (in-office)

Salary: $120k-150k + stock options, 401k matching, and other benefits.

Role Overview:

At Seasats, we're building the future of autonomous ocean vehicles. We’re looking for a developer to join our vehicle software team and help us push the boundaries of what’s possible on the water.

Our small but fast-moving team is based in San Diego, where we design and implement the onboard software that powers our autonomous surface vessels. Operating in remote, often communications-limited environments, our vehicles rely on a robust autonomy stack and smart sensor integration to carry out persistent missions with minimal human intervention.

If you're excited by rapid prototyping, hands-on testing, and writing software that directly drives real-world robotic systems, this is a chance to make a big impact in a fast-evolving field.

About You:

You like working in small teams and iterating quickly. You keep up on recent developments in software and robotics, and you’ve been known to write code for recreational projects outside of work. You can probably type really fast, or can think so clearly that you don’t need to type fast, or both. Additionally, you have:

• 5+ years of experience in the software industry, and 3+ years developing embedded software, ideally for real-time or resource-constrained systems.
• Proficiency in Python and solid skills in C and/or C++.
• Worked extensively on software for an embedded Linux target.
• Handled integration for a variety of sensor data (IMU, GPS, RADAR, LiDAR).
• Hands-on experience with microcontroller hardware and low-level firmware development.
• Experience with multi-threaded application development.
• The ability to conceptualize and implement software architectures that are both reliable and scalable.
• Excellent collaboration and teamwork skills, with a side of humility.
• A love for moving fast, but dissatisfaction with things that aren’t robust.

Bonus points if you have:

• A background in mobile robotics — especially familiarity with:
  • PID control systems
  • Object avoidance
  • Path planning
  • Onboard resource management
• Familiarity with ROS (or other robotics platform).
• Experience working on and maintaining large or mature software systems.
• Experience writing software for a machine capable of destroying itself.

Role Details:

In this role, you’ll work across the stack, from writing low-level drivers to implementing higher-level decision-making logic. On a day-to-day / week-to-week basis, you will:

• Design, implement, and test new features to make our boats smarter, more robust, and easier to use.
• Develop and validate new autonomy algorithms to safely guide our boats through channels and across oceans.
• Work hands-on to integrate new sensors and payloads (sometimes at a moment’s notice!).
• Continuously add to and improve our automated test suite, tooling, and health checks.
• Support vehicle checkout, testing, troubleshooting, and demonstrations by making trips to our local launch points with a laptop (and potentially to customer sites, if you’re interested in travel) to provide hands-on support.

This is an excellent opportunity to do high impact work, see your code go into live field robotics applications, and join a fun and hard working team on the cutting edge of ocean autonomy. Whether you’re a new grad or a 30 year industry vet, we expect an open-minded learning attitude from everyone at Seasats.

Life at Seasats:

Along with your salary, you’ll receive perks including:

• Stock options
• Competitive insurance (including a 99% employer-covered Gold HMO plan or other options)
• 401k matching up to 4% of salary
• Four free lunches per week
• An employee activity fund
• A pet-friendly office
• Unlimited/Flex PTO

We’ll help you ramp up and will regularly take time to discuss what’s working and what’s not. We’re also big on personal freedoms: if you’re on top of your responsibilities and want the afternoon off to surf or spend time with friends and family, go for it! We have flexible hours, accommodating PTO, and a personable, high-achieving work culture. We want someone who’s excited to work hard and have fun in this environment.

Our values are listed below; we’re happy to explain them more during the interview process.

• Get Stuff Done
• Be Kind
• Fight Entropy
• Attack with Overwhelming Force
• Ask More Questions
• Lines, Not Dots

Hiring Notes:

If you decide to apply, you’ll be asked to provide a resume and answer a few screening questions. If we decide to move forward with your application, you can expect no more than 2-3 more rounds of virtual interviews before a final in-person interview. If you have to travel to San Diego, we’ll reimburse pre-approved travel costs.

Please note that we are currently unable to sponsor employment visas, so candidates must be independently authorized to work in the United States.

We appreciate diverse perspectives and life experiences, so we encourage women, minorities, and people of all backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We look forward to reviewing your application!