Role description
Engineering Project Manager
UlyssesUlysses is building the autonomy platform for the ocean with mass-deployable, fully autonomous surface and subsea robots with dual-domain, read-and-write capabilities. Our oceans are in trouble; we’ve neglected them, and we allow bad actors to misuse them. Ulysses will manage our oceans effectively, persistently, and cheaply. We're developing autonomous surface and subsea drones, robotics, and AI systems to tackle critical challenges across nature, infrastructure, and maritime security. Our first product line is a suite of autonomous drones and attachments that makes restoring seagrass ecosystems cheaper and easier. We are currently working with governments in the US and Australia and leading environmental groups like The Nature Conservancy. We are a Series A company backed by top VCs such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
About the Role
We're hiring an Engineering Project Manager to take robot development projects from an agreed scope to a tested system. You'll coordinate mechanical, electrical, software, manufacturing and operations work on Mako, our autonomous underwater vehicle, and Leviathan, our autonomous surface platform.
You'll work alongside engineers in the workshop and during integration and testing. We need someone who understands the dependencies behind a schedule, asks good technical questions and helps the team respond when a late component or failed test changes the plan.
What You’ll Do
Build development plans with clear deliverables, owners, dependencies and test milestones. Work with engineers on estimates and expose assumptions early.
Coordinate mechanisms, housings, power, navigation, embedded software and vehicle control. Record interface decisions and make sure everyone affected knows what changed.
Keep the critical path visible across long-lead components, prototype builds, external work and unresolved decisions. Bring the right people together to unblock work.
Plan integration around available hardware and software. Track the configuration and revisions used in each build and test.
Define acceptance criteria and test coverage with engineering and test teams, from bench checks through integrated vehicle tests and sea trials.
Coordinate test readiness with operations, including vehicles, payloads, boats, equipment and people. Confirm each test's purpose and prerequisites.
Manage scope and schedule changes. Explain the effects on related work, present options and get decisions made in time.
Keep concise records of risks, decisions and actions. Follow failures through fixes and retesting, and coordinate drawings, build instructions and evidence for production release.
About you
Requirements
Experience delivering hardware or robotics projects across engineering disciplines, through integration, testing and use outside the lab.
Technical depth to follow mechanical and electrical interfaces, software dependencies and test results, and recognize missing work.
Practical planning judgment. You can distinguish estimates from commitments, identify dependencies and explain which decisions affect delivery.
A record of getting work done across teams without formal authority. You follow through, clarify ownership and raise problems early.
Comfort with changing prototypes and incomplete information. You can revise a plan while keeping unresolved issues visible.
Clear written and verbal communication, including concise technical updates with specific decisions and next actions.
Willingness to work on-site in San Francisco alongside the people building and testing the hardware.
Nice-to-haves
Experience with marine robotics, autonomous vehicles or other hardware used in demanding field conditions.
An engineering background with hands-on integration, testing or manufacturing experience.
Experience taking prototypes into production while controlling engineering changes and configuration records.
Experience coordinating field trials with limited vehicles, facilities or specialist equipment.