Payload Integration Engineer

Role: Payload Integration Engineer

Location: San Diego, CA (in-office)

Salary: $120,000 - $170,000 / yr + stock options, 401k matching, and other benefits

Role Overview:

Seasats’ unmanned surface vessels (USVs) operate at sea for months at a time, carrying a wide variety of payloads. Ensuring those payloads are correctly integrated, tested, and documented is critical to every mission we run.

As a Payload Integration Engineer, you’ll support the integration of payloads onto our vehicles. You’ll work closely with engineers, the testing team, and cross-functional partners to help bring payloads from early development through testing and into production. This role is hands-on and detail-oriented, with an emphasis on learning, execution, and building repeatable processes.

Role Details:

You will be responsible for:

• Conducting research and testing to evaluate payload capabilities
• Understanding and designing electrical systems, components, and products
• Working closely with the sales team to translate customers’ system requirements into payload specifications
• Coordinating with engineers to develop test hardware, wiring harnesses, mechanical interfaces, etc. to build and test payload integrations
• Requirements management, system integration, test plan development, and test execution throughout a payload system’s entire development, demonstration, and production phases
• Developing test plans and documentation such as user manuals, integration guides and troubleshooting guides
• Helping troubleshoot integration issues across electrical, software, and system boundaries
• Supporting the transition of payloads from R&D into production, including test setup and data handling workflows
• Serving as a technical point of contact for payload questions, with mentorship and support from electronics team members

About You:

You’re an independent, proactive engineer who enjoys owning problems and seeing projects through. You like figuring out how things work, documenting what you learn, and improving processes over time. You have:

• A Bachelor’s degree or relevant coursework in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related field (or equivalent hands-on experience)
• 3-5 years of experience building, assembling, or testing hardware systems (academic, personal, or professional)
• Familiarity with PCBAs and basic electronics assembly or testing
• Some programming experience in C or C++ (e.g., test scripts, simple tools, or embedded coursework)
• Strong attention to detail and willingness to follow and improve documented procedures
• Clear written and verbal communication skills

In addition, it’s nice (though not essential) if you have:

• Exposure to embedded systems, robotics, or autonomy platforms
• Basic networking knowledge (e.g., static IPs, SSH, device setup)
• Startup, research, or R&D team experience

About Seasats:

At Seasats, we're passionate about delivering maritime robotics solutions to redefine the maritime industry. Our primary products are unmanned surface vessels (USVs), designed to carry sensors at sea for months at a time. Our USVs provide persistent monitoring and data acquisition to defense, scientific, and commercial customers, and have autonomously crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. After thousands of years in which the only way to gather information from the ocean was to put people on a boat, these uncrewed vessels are transforming how humanity monitors and interacts with the ocean. Here, you’ll find the space and opportunity to do your life’s best work.

Along with your salary, you’ll receive perks including:

• Competitive insurance (including a 99% employer-covered Gold HMO plan or other options)
• 401k matching up to 4% of salary
• Four free lunches per week
• An employee activity fund
• A pet-friendly office
• Unlimited/Flex PTO

Hiring Notes:

When applying, you’ll be asked to provide a resume and answer a few screening questions.

Please note that we are currently unable to sponsor employment visas, so candidates must be independently authorized to work in the United States.

Due to export control requirements applicable to this position, we are only able to consider U.S. persons, as defined by U.S. export control laws. This includes U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and individuals granted asylum or refugee status.

We appreciate diverse perspectives and life experiences, and we’re committed to building a team that reflects a wide range of backgrounds. Seasats provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination of any type based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law.

We look forward to reviewing your application!