Senior Software Engineer, Core Systems

About the Company We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore. The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices.

We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis. About the Job Our core technology is the Node, a device that produces energy in the ocean’s harshest conditions for years without human maintenance or intervention. As a Senior Software Engineer on the Core Systems team, you will contribute to the design, development, and optimization of the onboard data aggregation and telemetry systems.

You will work with our Core team and partner with Shore-side software engineers to build reliable data pipelines, low-latency telemetry paths, and storage systems that function in constrained, unpredictable marine environments. You will also work closely with our networking and security engineers to ensure onboard systems communicate reliably and remain free of critical vulnerabilities. Your work will directly shape how data is captured, moved, and understood onboard, enabling resilient autonomy and breakthrough operational insight for the rest of the company.

As such, you should feel comfortable communicating effectively across the boundaries of teams and disciplines. In addition to developing new capabilities, you will build on our existing development processes and tooling to further enhance the quality and reliability of our onboard software – expanding unit testing frameworks, automated integration tests, continuous deployment pipelines, and code reviews and documentation.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain the network-facing software layers that enable Node to communicate reliably with shore – from low-level connection handling to higher-level data exchange protocols. Design egress telemetry pipelines that use bandwidth efficiently, weighing tradeoffs between data fidelity, timeliness, and link constraints. Collaborate on APIs and schemas for command, control, and telemetry exchanges between subsystems, ensuring reliability is built in from the start.

Partner with network engineers to ensure a cohesive strategy for how bandwidth is divided and prioritized among competing data streams – telemetry, command and control, diagnostics, etc. – ensuring consistent allocation and fulfillment of bandwidth budget. Ensure that software degrades gracefully during connectivity loss or link degradation – including buffering, retry logic, and prioritized retransmission – so critical data isn't lost when links drop.

Work with network and security engineers to review onboard software for vulnerabilities, harden network-facing services, and ensure telemetry and control interfaces meet the company's security standards before deployment. Analyze system performance and implement optimizations for latency, throughput, and resource efficiency. Extend and improve existing unit testing frameworks, integration tests, and CI/CD pipelines.

Strengthen code review, documentation, and general software engineering practices within the team. Participate in design reviews, architecture discussions, and cross-team technical collaborations.

Required Qualifications

7+ years of experience developing software. 3+ years of experience with data-intensive or mission-critical systems. Proficiency in a systems programming language (Rust, C++, or similar).

Proficiency with version control (we use git). Competency with CI/CD pipelines for automated tests and deployment.