- Robot type
- Marine and Space
- Location
- AlamedaCaliforniaUSA
- Job type
- Software
- Posted
- Sep 21, 2026
- Salary
- $144,500–$322,742 a year
Full-time
Vehicle Software Engineer
Job description
Saildrone's autonomous vessels depend on software that directly interfaces with the physical vehicle: sensors, onboard computers, power systems, and control systems. As a Vehicle Software Engineer, you will develop the production C++ software that integrates these systems and keeps autonomous vessels operating reliably in the real world.
This is a hands-on systems role at the boundary of software and hardware. You will work from sensor and subsystem integration through testing, deployment, and field troubleshooting, with the opportunity to solve problems on autonomous vehicles operating for long periods far from human operators.
Saildrone is a maritime defense company and the global leader…
Job responsibilities
- Develop and maintain production C++ software running onboard autonomous vessels.
- Integrate sensors and physical vehicle subsystems into the onboard software stack.
- Interface with power, battery-management, propulsion, and other vehicle control systems.
- Diagnose complex vehicle and software issues using telemetry, logs, testing, and direct system investigation.
- Develop software supporting vehicle configuration, deployment, upgrades, and migration across the fleet.
- Validate software and hardware integrations on real vehicles and improve their reliability in field operations.
Job requirements
- Strong C++ software engineering skills and experience building production systems.
- Strong systems understanding and comfort working across software and hardware boundaries.
- Experience developing software that interfaces with sensors, actuators, or other physical systems.
- Experience debugging complex systems using logs, telemetry, test data, and system behavior.
- Experience deploying and maintaining software on physical products or other systems operating in the field.
- Ability to understand and reason about interactions between software, hardware, and larger system behavior.