[Hiring] Principal Engineer - Remote and Autonomous Navigation Systems @Ocean Infinity

Role Description

We are seeking an experienced Principal / Lead C++ Engineer to play a defining role in the evolution of our Remote and Autonomous Navigation System for uncrewed surface vessels (USVs). This is a hands-on technical leadership role at the intersection of remote vessel operations, autonomous navigation, and safety critical maritime systems. You will help shape the architecture that enables a clear pathway from remote navigation today to increasingly autonomous operations at fleet scale.

This role is ideal for someone who is excited by autonomy, enjoys working close to real hardware, and wants to build navigation systems that operate in the real world: At sea, under regulatory scrutiny, and across an operational fleet.

What You Will Do

• Define and lead the architecture of performance critical C++ systems forming the core of our Remote / Autonomous Navigation System
• Design and implement software spanning:
  • Onboard, hardware integrated control and navigation systems
  • Interfaces to autonomy, decision support, and navigation logic
  • Networking, communications resilience, and distributed services
• Lead the technical evolution from remote manual navigation → assisted decision-making → autonomous navigation behaviours, supporting a human-on-the-loop operating model
• Architect clean, modular integration layers between the navigation system and onboard vessel systems (navigation sensors, propulsion, safety systems, payloads)
• Make system level decisions across latency, determinism and fault handling in safety critical environments
• Work closely with systems, autonomy, and operations teams to translate operational and regulatory constraints into robust, production ready designs
• Act as a technical authority across teams, setting standards, reviewing designs, and mentoring other engineers
• Challenge and refine engineering practices to support long term reliability, upgradeability, and fleetwide deployment

Qualifications

• Significant professional experience in modern C++ (C++14/17/20)
• Strong background in embedded, edge, or hardware integrated systems
• Demonstrated experience designing or integrating autonomous or semi‑autonomous navigation systems, ideally within:
  • Maritime / USVs
  • Automotive (ADAS, autonomy, vehicle control)
  • Robotics or similar safety critical domains
• Solid experience with networked and distributed systems (TCP/IP, UDP, unreliable links, comms loss handling)
• Proven ability to operate as a hands-on technical lead or principal engineer, influencing architecture across multiple teams

Desirable Experience

• Autonomy frameworks or middleware (e.g. DDS, ROS, or similar)
• Maritime or industrial control systems and protocols (e.g. NMEA, Modbus, OPC, Profibus)
• Designing navigation or autonomy systems subject to regulatory or classification requirements
• Containerisation or deployment tooling where appropriate (Docker, Kubernetes, edge deployments)
• Experience working with autonomy roadmaps, simulation environments, or data driven improvement loops

Why This Role Is Different

• You will work on a core Remote / Autonomous Navigation System deployed on real vessels, not research prototypes
• The architecture is explicitly designed to support a progressive autonomy pathway, not a one-off autonomy solution
• You will influence how remote navigation, autonomy, and safety coexist in operational maritime systems
• This is not a “pure autonomy” or “pure embedded” role. It is about making autonomous navigation real, operable, and scalable

Salary

Up to £120000. The salary varies for this position as we are recruiting in multiple regional locations and job grades. The salary process is based on skills, abilities, and experience required.

What you can expect

At Ocean Infinity, we believe in creating equal opportunities for all, celebrating each and everyone’s differences. We are driven by transforming the industry, through our technology, thoughts, behaviours and actions. Being inclusive and respectful to all is fundamental to who we are. It is the right thing to do and enables innovation and creativity to thrive.

There is more work to be done, and we know that we aren’t perfect, but our commitment to these values is unwavering. They are central to our mission and the impact we have on the industry, meaning, we cannot live without them.