- Robot type
- Marine and Space
- Location
- AlamedaCaliforniaUSA
- Job type
- Manufacturing
- Posted
- Sep 18, 2026
- Salary
- $160,000–$188,000 a year
Full-time
Staff Reliability and Quality Engineer
Job description
Saildrone is a maritime defense company and the global leader in autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). With more ocean miles and real-world operational experience than any USV manufacturer or operator, Saildrone maintains active, combat-deployed systems supporting national security and force projection around the world, 24/7/365.
Saildrone’s manufacturing and R&D headquarters are located in Alameda, CA, with business development and sales operations in Washington, DC, and deployment hubs in Europe and the Middle East.
Saildrone is seeking a highly organized and passionate individual to join our quality engineering team.
Job responsibilities
- Monitor field performance across multiple drone platforms and identify emerging quality and reliability trends.
- Define, maintain, and report reliability KPIs suited to each product and customer use case, including MTBF, MTTF, failure rate, mean time to repair (MTTR), mission success rate, early-life failure rate, repeat failure…
- Perform life-data and reliability analysis, including Weibull analysis, to understand failure behavior and product performance over time.
- Lead weekly field triage meetings to align teams on the most critical issues, set clear priorities, assign ownership, and turn insights into measurable actions that improve drone reliability.
- Conduct MRB meetings for returned hardware and determine appropriate disposition, including scrap, remanufacture/reuse, use-as-is, or return for further analysis
- Lead cross-functional RCA investigations including on returned hardware and drive CAPAs through closure.
- Partner with Technical Operations Support and Fleet Service to develop systems for tracking field failures, trends, customer usage, and overall reliability performance.
- Partner with Remanufacturing to develop and implement quality processes for the inspection, disposition, rework, and release of returned hardware.
Job requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 5 to 8+ years of hands-on quality engineering experience in a high-stakes, hardware-centric environment (e.g., Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, or Maritime/Robotics).
- OEM or T1 automotive, aerospace, maritime, or defense contractor experience.
- Hands-on experience troubleshooting, testing, and investigating electromechanical hardware.
- Experience defining and monitoring reliability KPIs for products operating in real-world customer environments.
- Experience applying quality and reliability methods to real-world product and field issues.
- Strong working knowledge of quality, root cause, and reliability methodologies, including 8D, FRACAS, FTA, and FMEA.
- Working knowledge of statistical and reliability analysis tools, including the ReliaSoft suite.