What are the responsibilities and job description for the Path Autonomy Engineer position at Ocean Aero, Inc.?
About Ocean Aero:
Ocean Aero is an award-winning US company that has created the world’s first and only environmentally powered Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicle (AUSV.) Ocean Aero’s autonomous marine robot, the Triton, operates exclusively on wind and solar energy and performs long endurance missions on the ocean surface with the ability to dive below the waves for underwater operations. The Triton uses a complex array of custom-built sensors, marinized electronics and software systems to operate, sense and communicate in the environment.
Ocean Aero has a collaborative culture with plenty of opportunities for growth and ownership, and comprehensive benefits.
Role Description:
The Path Autonomy Engineer will be responsible for designing, developing, simulating, and documenting Ocean Aero's path autonomy and mission recommendation software. The role will focus on Global Path Autonomy: chart ingestion, route planning, cost functions, Monte Carlo Tree Search, and simulation-based mission evaluation. The Path Autonomy Engineer will be working alongside a team of creative engineers with a diverse set of backgrounds and skills. This role will report to the Chief Technology Officer.
Role Responsibilities:
- Design Global Path Autonomy for route planning across surface and subsurface missions
- Build simulation and modeling tools for vehicle behavior, uncertainty, and planner performance
- Develop cost functions for safety, energy, time, risk, geofences, bathymetry, weather, and mission goals
- Implement route-planning algorithms, including graph search, optimization, and Monte Carlo Tree Search
- Ingest charts, bathymetry, restricted areas, maritime rules, and geofences into Global Path Autonomy maps
- Generate mission recommendations, route alternatives, and decision-support outputs
- Validate autonomy behavior in simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and field environments
- Collaborate across software, autonomy, vehicle systems, and operations teams on build/test demonstrations
- Create planner metrics, improve mission recommendation quality, and maintain technical documentation
Role Requirements:
- B.S. from an accredited university, such as Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics or Physics
- Demonstrated 3 years' experience in software development/engineering
- Hands-on experience with route/path planning methods, including graph-based, sampling-based, optimization-based, or tree-search approaches, cost maps, dynamic replanning, and cost-function design
- Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures, with proficiency in C and Python on Linux-based operating systems and command-line workflows
- Experience building simulation, modeling, evaluation, and test tooling to validate autonomy behavior, planner performance, and mission recommendation quality
- Experience ingesting geospatial, nautical chart, bathymetry, environmental, or operational data into planning maps, constraints, and decision-support tools
- Excellent cross-department communication skills
- Ability to think independently about creative solutions to design problems
- Experience with sailing is a plus
- Team player, with excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills
- Ability to travel occasionally, as needed
- US Citizenship required
- Ability to obtain and maintain a US Department of Defense (DoD) Security Clearance
- Possess a valid Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC) or successfully pass the requirements to obtain one
- Ability to pass drug screen, background check, and motor vehicle screening
Role Preferences:
- Experience in maritime operating environments, including currents, wind, bathymetry, COLREGs, vessel traffic, port operations, and MPA/EEZ geofencing
- Experience with Monte Carlo Tree Search, heuristic search, multi-objective optimization, risk modeling, or recommendation systems
- Exposure to global/local planner architectures, planner-to-controller handoff, MPC, LQR, or trajectory optimization
- Experience with chart standards or geospatial data sources such as ENC, S-57/S-101, AIS, bathymetry, or routing/weather data
- Experience with the marine environment and systems, including ROVs, UUVs, USVs or sail boats is a definite plus; general interest in robotics
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible schedule
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Referral program
- Retirement plan
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
Application Question(s):
- This position is 100% on-site and is not eligible for remote or hybrid work. Are you able to work on-site full-time?
Work Location: In person