Aquatic Labs Software Engineer Cambridge, MA · Full time

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About Aquatic

Aquatic's mission is to reveal the invisible throughout the world's waters.  

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Aquatic is combining cutting-edge semiconductor technology, transformative ocean science, and modern fabrication approaches to create globally-scalable tools for tracking carbon, nutrients, and biodiversity throughout the world’s oceans, lakes and streams – tools that are essential for a host of global industries, from regulatory compliance to monitoring biodiversity to verifying marine carbon sequestration.

Job Description

Aquatic is seeking a highly motivated and technically sophisticated Software Engineer. This engineer will play a central role in the design and development of our core technology stack, from embedded systems integrating sensors (chemical, physical, biological), data logging, compute, communication, and routing layers, to the data pipeline and user interfaces that turn measured values into actionable insights. They will also play a key role in the design of abstraction layers and specified interfaces that will have industry-scale impact. The work will require expertise with a wide array of languages (eg C, C++, VHDL, Python, HTML, etc) hardware (MCUs/GPUs/FPGAs) and the cloud, as well as collaboration on the development of electronic designs (including everything from embedded systems to analog front ends for sensor development) and associated firmware and software development.  The position may involve field deployments / expeditions to support data collection and testing, as well as post-processing and analysis.

The internal working title for this position is Senior Software Engineer, but the final level of the position will be determined by the selected candidate’s level of experience, expertise, and ambition.   We have multiple open positions, so interested applicants at a variety of levels are encouraged to apply.  

Our highly collaborative team is based at our facility in Central Square, Cambridge, MA.  While everyone on the team is welcome to work remotely from time to time as convenient, the expectation is that this role will be largely in-person and on-site.

Essential Functions

In this position you will imagine, develop, iterate, and commercially deploy the firmware and software driving innovative embedded systems and data pipelines tackling some of the thorniest problems in the ocean.  This position requires a strong engineering background, meticulous work habits, strong interpersonal skills, curiosity, creativity, self-motivation and professionalism.  Specific responsibilities include (but are not limited to): 

• Leading the design, development, testing, and deployment of major projects featuring novel embedded systems, with supervision consisting primarily of milestone progress reviews
• Defining and implementing new specified interfaces, abstraction layers, and APIs
• Interacting with the entire Aquatic team to brainstorm new approaches to hard problems within and well beyond your specific expertise
• Growing and supervising the Software Engineering team, including the full arc from firmware for our embedded systems to cloud-based user interfaces and everything in between
• With little supervision, will work creatively and independently to establish objectives, meet deadlines, and complete difficult engineering assignments by demonstrating full competency in one or more engineering areas; assists substantively in planning technical aspects of experiments, as well as design, testing, and use of major system components.

Education & Experience

Educational requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in software engineering or computer science with at least five years of experience in relevant development projects
• Alternatively, a Ph.D. or Master's degree in software engineering or computer science with several years of related experience. 
• Candidate without formal degrees but with a clear record of deep experience in firmware and full-stack software engineering will also be considered.
• All candidates should possess demonstrated excellence within a related field, i.e., a record of superior accomplishment-such as patents, publications, open-source projects, etc

Skills and qualifications:

• Fluency in C / C++ / Python / and other high-level programming languages, including comfort in learning new languages as needed. tools
• Experience with programming, debugging, and deploying embedded systems.
• Experience with management and logistics related to software development and deployment.
• Adaptable to the dynamic environment of a startup.
• Share our core values and demonstrate curiosity and a passion for innovation.

Other skills that are desirable but not required include:

• Fluency with FPGAs and fluency in VHDL and/or Verilog.
• Experience with precision sensing and analog-digital interfaces.
• Experience working with oceanographic systems.
• Experience with a wide array of operating system programming and administration.
• Experience with data analysis.

Benefits

Aquatic provides a variety of benefits including medical, unlimited PTO, flexible hours and (partial) hybrid working opportunities.  Aquatic is an equal opportunity employer.