Ocean robots that stay at sea for months
Online Oceans builds Scout, a 2.4 m solar-electric robot boat that collects ocean data for months at a time. No ship. No crew. One person launches it from a beach. Tether, our web platform, runs the fleet from any browser.
Survey companies, instrument makers and research programmes use Scout to watch the sea, listen for vessels and marine mammals, and measure waves and weather. We are a small, venture-backed team in Southampton, growing fast.
The job
Every Scout runs SentryOS on its embedded computer alongside the flight control software. SentryOS drives the autopilot, manages power, comms and sensors, and has to recover from faults on its own, because a Scout is often hundreds of miles from the nearest engineer. Scouts hold station for weeks on solar power, keep working in sea state 6 and talk to shore over Starlink and Iridium. You will own large parts of SentryOS, from the services on the boat to the tests and release process that let us update it safely while it is at sea.
What you will do
- Build and harden SentryOS services, watchdogs, logging and self-recovery so a Scout can clear its own faults without anyone going out to it.
- Integrate the flight control software over MAVLink for missions, station keeping and collision avoidance.
- Keep Starlink and Iridium links reliable, and keep satellite data use low on long missions.
- Build simulation and hardware-in-the-loop tests, and the release process that depends on them.
- Ship software updates safely to Scouts at sea over satellite links.
- Investigate faults from boats at sea using their logs, and fix the root cause.
- Join sea trials and watch your software run on the water.
What you will bring
- 5+ years building software for robots, drones or embedded systems.
- Deep, practical Linux, including systemd, networking, serial and embedded boards.
- Strong Python.
- Software you have shipped that runs on hardware in the field.
- Patience for debugging from logs and evidence when you cannot get your hands on the hardware.
Nice to have
- Experience with flight control software and MAVLink on drones (strongly preferred).
- C or C++.
- Satellite or low-bandwidth comms.
Why join
- Your software on real missions SentryOS has been on board for 40 days on station carrying Sofar Ocean sensors, and for underwater vehicle tracking with customers around England, Wales and Scotland.
- Reliability is the job A Scout has to keep itself running on solar power and a satellite link with nobody nearby, so the watchdogs, recovery and release process you build decide whether a mission succeeds.
- The whole on-board stack You will work across MAVLink, comms, logging, testing and releases, and see a fault through from the log file to the fix that ships.
- Next to the hardware You will work alongside the electronics, integration and field engineers who build and launch Scout, and go to sea on trials yourself.
How to apply
Email your CV to hello@onlineoceans.com with "Software Engineer (Robotics)" in the subject line. Add a few lines on what you have built and why the ocean matters to you.
Not a perfect match? Apply anyway. We reply to every application. No agencies, please.
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