Autonomous Ocean Robotics Engineer

University of Washington; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at the University of Washington seeks a Research Engineer to advance autonomous sensing and simulation of the ocean environment. You will design and oversee AUVs and their sensor suites, deploy them for sponsor-driven missions, and develop numerical models to assess flight performance in real-time sensing contexts.

The role emphasizes lab leadership, collaboration with co-PIs and sponsors, and management of HPC servers and large datasets.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, or a closely related discipline.
• At least ten years of progressive experience in marine tech and autonomous vehicles.
• Ability to obtain DoD security clearance and US citizenship.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the design and development of autonomous underwater platforms and their sensor/processing packages.
• Collaborate with co-PIs and sponsors to design concepts of operation and demonstrate them in at-sea tests.
• Track and schedule progress in lab and with outside vendors to meet deadlines.
• Design, configure, and implement high-performance computer servers for ocean modeling and analysis.
• Develop technical support and system administration for Linux-based analysis servers supporting HPC workflows.
• Support software installation and user support, monitor RAID storage and manage large datasets on HPC systems.
• Balance funding agency and partner requests to succeed in funded programs.

Skills

Autonomous underwater vehicle design

High‑performance computing

Linux system administration

Project leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering/Physics or related field

Tools

RAID storage management

HPC server deployment

Lab equipment integration

Job description

The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at the University of Washington seeks a Research Engineer to advance autonomous sensing and simulation of the ocean environment. You will design and oversee AUVs and their sensor suites, deploy them for sponsor-driven missions, and develop numerical models to assess flight performance in real-time sensing contexts.

The role emphasizes lab leadership, collaboration with co-PIs and sponsors, and management of HPC servers and large datasets.