Lead Hydrographic Surveyor

Ulysses; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Ulysses in San Francisco is seeking a Lead Hydrographic Surveyor to own offshore survey campaigns, from planning to deliverables. You will design surveys, run data acquisition on the water, and produce charts and reports that meet client specifications.

This hands-on role requires deep MBES knowledge, AUV experience, and proficiency in Qimera, CARIS, or OIC Cleansweep. You will collaborate with engineering, ops, and commercial teams to advance autonomous hydrography.

Qualifications

• Experience running hydrographic surveys with AUVs offshore.
• Proficient with MBES, sound velocity management, and IHO S-44.
• Proficient in processing suites and delivering client-ready products.
• Strong positioning/geodesy knowledge; GNSS/INS/USBL.

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end survey plans and sensor setups.
• Mobilize and run surveys on water and offshore client work.
• Own post-processing pipeline and deliverables.
• Assist with scoping work and bid writing.
• Provide product feedback to improve platform.

Skills

AUV hydrographic surveys

MBES expertise

GNSS/INS/USBL positioning

Data processing (Qimera/CARIS/OIC)

Deliverables (charts/reports)

Field operations & logistics

Python scripting

Tools

Qimera

CARIS HIPS & SIPS

OIC Cleansweep

Job description

Lead Hydrographic Surveyor

About Us

Ulysses is the ocean company. We build and operate autonomous surface and subsurface vehicles - addressing critical missions across defense, energy, and nature.

Our vertically integrated platform includes the Mako, a modular AUV with 72-hour endurance and more onboard compute than any vehicle in its class; the Leviathan, a USV mothership; and the Kraken, an autonomous 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 are 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.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco, Ulysses raised $48 million 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 is no frontier bigger than the ocean.

About the Role

We are building an in-house capacity to execute-safely and to spec-offshore survey and inspection campaigns in the US and abroad. We seek a Lead Hydrographic Surveyor to own that craft at Ulysses - the first dedicated surveyor on the team, responsible for how we plan, acquire, process, and deliver hydrographic data.

You will be hands-on from day one: designing survey plans, running acquisition on the water (for now), processing data, and providing deliverables that meet and exceed client expectations. You will sit between engineering, technical operations, and commercial to guide the development and field testing of new system capabilities that anticipate customer needs.

What You'll Do

• Survey design: Plan surveys end to end - line plans, sensor settings, geodesy, tide and sound velocity strategy - that fulfil customer requirements
• Acquisition: Mobilize and run surveys, from field trials in the Bay to client work offshore, including patch tests, calibrations, and on-the-fly QC so we never bring home bad data
• Processing & deliverables: Own the post-processing pipeline (Qimera, CARIS HIPS & SIPS, OIC Cleansweep, or your tool of choice), QC to IHO S-44, and own the charts, digital data products, and reports that go out the door with our name on them.
• Interface with the client and bid work: Help scope commercial survey work - translate client specs into survey plans, and write the technical sections of the bids that win them.
• Product feedback: Push requirements back into the platform - sensor integration, timing, autonomy behaviors, and data workflows - so a Mako survey gets better every month.

As the commercial survey business grows, you'll have room to build the survey team and define how autonomous hydrography is done - not just at Ulysses, but for the industry.

About You

Requirements

• You've spent serious time running hydrographic surveys with AUVs commercially: offshore energy, cable and pipeline routes, ports and harbors, or charting.
• You know multibeam inside and out: patch tests, sound velocity management, uncertainty budgets, and what it takes to hit IHO S-44 special order with a small AUV.
• You're fluent in at least one major processing suite (Qimera, CARIS HIPS & SIPS, OIC Cleansweep, or similar) and can take raw data to a finished deliverable on your own.
• You're solid on positioning and geodesy: GNSS, INS, USBL, datums, and projections - and you can debug a navigation problem when the data doesn't line up.
• You can interpret side scan records and recognize what matters: contacts, scour, burial, infrastructure condition, and the difference between a target and a refraction.
• You've produced deliverables clients actually signed off on: processed surfaces, charts, and survey reports.
• You're comfortable in the field - small boats, early mobilizations, weather windows - and you hold your standards when conditions get rough.
• You're resourceful and self-taught by instinct; when you hit a sensor or workflow you've never used, your first move is to go figure it out.
• You take total ownership: if the data is bad, you find out why and fix it, even when nobody asks.
• You move fast and still care about getting it right.
• You're the type to roll up your sleeves and just get it done. If your idea of a great day is behind a big desk this position isn't for you.
• Operational logistics are your 'thing'. You look forward to Mob and Demob and know the 'where, when, and how' of equipment shipment, operations on vessels of opportunity, and are comfortable planning and executing operations where you lead these activities.

Nice-to-haves

• FIG/IHO/ICA Cat A or Cat B certification, or equivalent.
• You've conducted surveys with USVs and know the quirks of subsurface positioning and unmanned acquisition.
• Party chief or survey lead experience, including with client reps onboard.
• Experience with geophysics, including sub-bottom profilers or magnetometers for burial depth and route survey work.
• You can script - Python for data pipelines, QC automation, or processing at scale.
• Exposure to MCM or other defense survey work.
• You've helped write winning bids or scoped survey contracts.