Software Engineer

Oshen; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A cutting-edge robotics company in Plymouth is seeking a Full-Stack Engineer to manage and improve their software stack for ocean-going robots. This role involves designing and maintaining various components of the software, integrating algorithms, and developing customer-facing products. Ideal candidates have 2–4 years of experience in software engineering and a track record of ownership in system development. Competitive salary with meaningful stock options is offered.

Benefits

Optional international travel

Hardware lab access

Field testing opportunities

Qualifications

• 2–4 years' experience in software development, particularly in building coherent systems.
• Strong ownership of models, APIs, storage, frontend, and monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Manage and improve the software stack including various components.
• Integrate algorithms with backend services and ensure clear user interfaces.
• Implement customer-facing product features.

Skills

TypeScript/JavaScript

React

Node.js

SQL database

AWS

Tools

Postgres

WebSockets

REST APIs

MQTT

Python for data/ETL

Job description

Own the software stack powering Oshen's ocean‑going robots.

Why this role exists

We're a small, fast‑growing startup building wide area sensing networks on the ocean. We've recently started multi-million pound projects, delivered data for the US government, and designed the world's first robot to navigate into and provide data from a category 5 hurricane, the most destructive weather system our oceans know. We need a full‑stack engineer who wants high autonomy and will own our software stack end‑to‑end: from our mission manager app, to customer dashboards, to firmware and backend systems that make everything run.

The Package

• Salary: Competitive + meaningful stock options
• Location: In person at our Plymouth waterfront office & workshop
• Perks: Optional international travel to sea‑trials and customer demos; hardware lab access; field testing opportunities

Your role at Oshen

You'll manage and improve our software stack. Your work will be varied and high‑impact:

• Mission Manager Webapp: Improve our mission manager web app to plan, monitor, and debug live robot missions.
• Algorithms in production: Work with our research engineers to integrate swarm control and autonomy algorithms into reliable backend services with clear UI layer.
• Customer‑facing product: Implement requests that make our frontend intuitive and responsive, including maps, time‑series data visualisation, and robot control UI.
• Internal tools: Build small tools that unblock ops, manufacturing, and field teams.
• Backend + APIs: Extend our Node.js services, design clear APIs, and maintain good data structures and SQL schemas with solid logging/monitoring for visibility
• Cloud ops: Maintain AWS infrastructure for deployments, logs, monitoring, and cost awareness.
• (Optional) Firmware: If you're interested, contribute to embedded/edge work for on‑robot features. Not required.

You'll work closely with our internal hardware and operations teams, and you'll also collaborate with ocean-science partners and customers to make sure we build tools that solve real-world problems. You'll choose tools that balance rapid iteration with long term reliability.

Tech you'll use

• Today: TypeScript/JavaScript, React, Node.js, SQL database, AWS, GH Actions for CI/CD
• Useful adjacent experience: Postgres, WebSockets, REST APIs, MQTT, Python for data/ETL, general CI/CD practices
• Optional: Embedded C/C++, microcontrollers, I²C/UART/RS485

Experience

We care about your ability to learn fast and ship. We're hiring someone who can design and maintain a coherent system, not just add features. Strong candidates have 2–4 years' professional experience, but solid projects, open-source, or self-taught work can count the same.

You've taken ownership of a system before: models, APIs, storage, frontend, deploys, and monitoring. You set patterns, keep boundaries clear, and maintain a tidy, predictable codebase. You move quickly when needed, but you return to pay down technical debt. You communicate clearly and proactively, you can plan your work, raise priorities or blockers early, and keep the rest of the team aligned without needing close supervision.

Show us something real users rely on, with a short note or diagram of how you structured it and the trade‑offs you made. If your experience is mostly inside a large, pre‑defined codebase, include work that shows your system‑level thinking.

Why Oshen?

The ocean is still a blind spot for the planet, there's no persistent, wide‑area sensing network. Solving this requires nodes that are mass‑deployable, persistent, and navigable. Persistence means surviving multi‑month missions through the worst winter storms. Navigability means reliably going from A→B or holding station. And mass deployment means units must be small, low‑cost, and easy to field in swarms.

Oshen is the only company to have solved all three. Our one‑metre ocean robots have completed multi‑month missions, navigated autonomously at sea, and are the only surface robots in the world to have sailed into, and survived, a Category 5 hurricane.

We're signing new contracts rapidly and expanding the team to meet demand. You'll be joining at an inflection point, where your work helps lay the foundations of a global ocean network that moves missions, customers, and climate science forward.

Our hiring process

• Apply: Apply at hiring.oshendata.com with your CV and brief answers to the three questions on the application form.
• Step 1: 15‑minute intro call
• Step 2: Practical exercises (small, relevant, time‑boxed) + interview
• Final: Half‑day with the Oshen team in Plymouth (expenses covered)