Field Engineer

Ulysses is the ocean company. We design, manufacture, and operate autonomous vehicles for surface and subsea operations — taking on the most critical tasks across defense, commercial, and scientific missions. Our vertically integrated platform includes Mako, a modular AUV with 72-hour endurance and more onboard compute than any vehicle in its class; Leviathan, an autonomous surface vessel mothership; and Kraken, our automated launch-and-recovery system that closes the loop between surface and subsea with zero human intervention.

The ocean covers 71% of the Earth's surface and drives a $2.6 trillion global economy, yet it remains the least monitored domain on the planet. We're changing that — building autonomous systems that collapse the cost of ocean operations by orders of magnitude so that persistent coverage becomes the baseline, not the exception. We operate globally today across defense, ocean science, and commercial survey, working with partners including the U.S. Navy, the Government of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco, Ulysses has raised $48 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Booz Allen Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, Pebblebed, Lowercarbon Capital, and others. Our team is lean, hands-on, and fast — we prototype in the shop, test on the water, and ship. If you want to work at the frontier, there's no frontier bigger than the ocean.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We're hiring a Field Engineer to deploy, integrate, and support Ulysses systems on boats and in the water around the world. You'll own the software side of deployments, from configuring and bringing up our systems on Linux to integrating them with vessel networks and diagnosing issues in the field. You'll work directly with customers and closely with our software, autonomy, and electrical teams to get Mako, Leviathan, and Kraken running reliably at sea.

This role is for someone who lives on the command line, can dig through JSON configs and logs to find what's wrong, and is just as comfortable on a rolling deck as in front of a customer. You'll be expected to diagnose problems fast, fix them on the spot, and bring clear, actionable feedback home so every deployment is better than the last.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Deployments: Spend time aboard customer and partner vessels, hands-on deploying our technology in real-world maritime environments. Install, configure, and commission systems onboard, flash and update software, manage system configurations, and actively support deployments through at-sea testing, sea trials, and final handover.

• Integration: connect our systems to vessel networks, sensors, and third-party equipment. Set up IP networking, serial and CAN links, and data pipelines, and verify that messages flow correctly end-to-end.

• Field diagnostics: troubleshoot live systems using Linux tools, JSON configs, logs, and telemetry to pinpoint whether a problem lives in software, configuration, networking, or hardware, and fix it on the spot.

• Field tooling: write and maintain scripts (Python or Bash) for log analysis, health checks, configuration management, and faster deployments.

• Customer-facing ownership: be part of the on-site face of Ulysses. Run pre-deployment briefings, train customer operators, and keep customers informed and confident when things go wrong.

• Feedback loop to engineering: write clear field and bug reports, reproduce issues, and work with software and autonomy teams to drive fixes into the product.

• Deployment readiness: build and maintain checklists, runbooks, and test procedures so deployments are repeatable, safe, and fast.

ABOUT YOU

REQUIREMENTS

• You've deployed, integrated, or supported software-driven systems in the field, outside of labs and offices, and you can tell us what went wrong and how you fixed it.

• Associate's or bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.

• Strong Linux skills: comfortable on the command line, with SSH, systemd, package management, file permissions, and reading system logs.

• Maritime experience: demonstrating a foundational understanding of vessel operations, safety protocols, and the demands of working at sea.

• Hands-on experience analyzing JSON data: extracting, parsing, and interpreting data from JSON files

• Networking fundamentals: IP addressing, subnets, routing, and tools like ping, tcpdump, and Wireshark to debug communication between devices.

• Scripting experience in Python or Bash to automate tasks and analyze logs.

• Methodical troubleshooting: you can isolate whether an issue is software, configuration, network, or hardware, and get to root cause fast.

• Excellent in front of customers: clear, confident, and professional, even when things aren't going to plan.

• Strong emotional intelligence: you build trust quickly, read the room, and stay calm under pressure.

• Comfortable working on boats and in the elements, and able to travel up to 50% of the time, sometimes on short notice.

• You have a track record of strong problem-solving skills and a demonstrated ability to work independently in dynamic environments.

NICE-TO-HAVES

• Professional Maritime experience: vessel integration, marine electronics (NMEA 0183/2000), or work as crew, ROV/AUV technician, or survey engineer

• Experience with robotics or autonomous systems software (ROS, MAVLink, or similar)

• Familiarity with serial (RS-232/RS-485) and CAN interfaces, and basic hardware tools like multimeters

• Experience with Docker, Git, or remote fleet management and monitoring tools

• Certifications such as STCW, sea survival, first aid, or small boat handling