Senior Software Engineer — Fleet Workflow Integrations

Sofar Ocean is a ocean intelligence company that operates the largest privately-owned ocean sensor network in the world, delivering real-time data and analytics to maritime, government, defense, and research customers. Their two core platforms are Spotter, a global network of solar-powered buoys and sensing devices that measure waves, wind, weather, sound, currents, temperature, water quality, and water level, and Wayfinder, a voyage optimization software that helps shipping operators reduce fuel consumption and emissions by recommending optimal routes, speeds, and schedules based on live maritime weather data and vessel performance models. The company generates over 1.5 million real-time ocean observations per day from more than 2,500 deployed Spotters worldwide, providing ground-truth data trusted by NOAA, the U.S. Navy, and major commercial shipping fleets. Sofar Ocean's mission is centered on building a comprehensive data layer for the ocean to improve safety, efficiency, and environmental stewardship across maritime industries. Their Wayfinder platform delivers an average fuel reduction of 4 to 8 percent per voyage, directly translating into lower greenhouse gas emissions for commercial shipping, one of the world's largest industrial carbon emitters. By combining proprietary sensor infrastructure with advanced weather modeling, Sofar claims forecasts that are 50 percent more accurate than traditional models, enabling better preparation for extreme weather events and protection of maritime assets. What distinguishes Sofar Ocean is its vertically integrated approach: the company owns and operates its own sensor network, runs its own intelligence models, and delivers end-to-end solutions from raw ocean data collection to actionable voyage guidance. This positions them uniquely at the intersection of climate resilience, maritime efficiency, and ocean science, serving a diverse customer base that includes shipping companies, governments, coral reef researchers, and defense agencies seeking live, hyperlocal ocean intelligence at a global scale.

The Company

Sofar is on a mission to connect the world’s oceans.

We design, build, and deploy the largest privately owned network of marine weather sensors to power the world’s best marine weather forecasts. Our data helps customers increase efficiency and reduce emissions, while providing governments and other stakeholders with tools to better understand and operate in the ocean environment.

We live on Planet Ocean, and our goal is to create the ocean intelligence needed to ensure a sustainable future.

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Senior Software Engineer to work directly with U.S. Navy Fleet users as we adapt and mature Sofar technology for Government maritime workflows and systems. Clearance or recent clearance is required.

This is a hands-on software engineering role that sits close to the users, workflows, interfaces, and external systems our software needs to work with.

This is a hybrid role based in either the Norfolk, Virginia or San Diego, California area, with an expectation of frequent onsite work — typically 2–3 days per week as needed — alongside Fleet Weather Center users. Candidates should already live within reasonable commuting distance of one of these locations. You’ll turn those observations into working software: improving user workflows, developing application capabilities, modeling operational concepts in the UI, and integrating Sofar technology with Government-provided systems and data.

The work is intentionally iterative. Requirements may begin with an observed workflow, an operational problem, an unfamiliar Government system, or an idea that needs to be tested with users rather than a finished specification.

You’ll help figure out what should be built, build it, put it in front of users, and refine it based on what you learn.

What You’ll Work On

You’ll work on problems involving:

• Working directly with Fleet Weather Center users to understand existing routing and voyage-planning workflows, pain points, and operational needs

• Translating observed Fleet workflows into practical software and user-interface improvements

• Improving workflows for ship selection, voyage planning, route review, and route comparison

• Developing clear presentation of route, weather, vessel, voyage, and related operational information

• Developing practical role-aware application behavior and user experiences

• Building application capabilities that preserve enough routing context to support review, comparison, and reproducibility

• Prototyping workflow concepts with users and iterating based on real-world feedback

• Integrating and visualizing routes and data produced by external Government systems

• Evaluating unfamiliar Government APIs, interfaces, data formats, authentication mechanisms, and technical constraints

• Prototyping interoperability between Sofar technology and selected Navy and Government systems

• Testing and troubleshooting software and integrations alongside Fleet users and Government engineering teams

Some concepts may first be developed or evaluated within Sofar’s commercial software before being adapted for Government environments.

This role is for an engineer who enjoys both writing software and figuring out how software should work — someone comfortable sitting with users, observing how they solve problems today, asking good questions, and turning that understanding into useful software.

The Impact

The goal of this work is not simply to move an existing commercial application into a Government environment.

It is to make Sofar technology meaningfully usable within representative Fleet Weather Center workflows.

You’ll help bridge the gap between Sofar’s product and engineering capabilities and the systems, data, workflows, and operational constraints encountered by Fleet users.

A significant part of the work is discovery. You may need to understand an existing workflow, investigate an unfamiliar interface, determine what data or APIs are available, develop a prototype, exercise it with users, and refine the solution based on what you learn.

You may also help explore interoperability with Government capabilities used around the routing workflow — including the ingestion, presentation, comparison, or exchange of route and voyage information.

The work spans traditional software engineering, user-facing application development, and systems integration. Depending on the problem, you may contribute to TypeScript/React applications, Python backend services, APIs, data integrations, application configuration, testing, and supporting software components.

You don’t need to specialize in every layer. You should be comfortable following a user or integration problem across software boundaries when necessary to understand it and make the solution work.

The software will also be exercised within Government-provided classified research environments. You’ll work with Sofar and Government engineering teams to understand environment-specific behavior, troubleshoot integrations, and help ensure the capabilities you develop function as intended in those environments.

About You

Eligibility

• U.S. citizenship is required for this position

• An active or recently active U.S. Government Secret security clearance is required

• Must be able to successfully pass a background check

• Must be willing and able to work onsite with U.S. Navy Fleet Weather Center users as required (Norfolk, VA or San Diego, CA)

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience building and maintaining production software

• Experience developing user-facing software and the backend services or APIs that support it

• Experience with TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, or similar modern software development languages

• Experience integrating software with APIs, data sources, backend services, or external systems

• Strong visual and product sense, with the ability to independently design and build clear, intuitive user interfaces from observed user workflows and needs

• Ability to translate operational workflows and domain concepts into practical application behavior

• Ability to quickly understand unfamiliar systems, interfaces, data formats, workflows, and codebases

• Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills across application and integration boundaries

• Comfortable working directly with users to understand how they actually work and where software can improve their workflows

• Comfortable iterating on software based on user feedback rather than relying exclusively on predefined requirements

• Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset when working with engineers, product teams, domain experts, Fleet users, and Government technical organizations

Your Experience Doesn’t Have to Come From the Navy

We don’t expect candidates to arrive already understanding Fleet Weather Center workflows or the specific Government systems involved in this effort.

Relevant experience may come from forward-deployed engineering, systems integration, field engineering, customer-facing software engineering, aerospace, logistics, autonomy, industrial systems, geospatial applications, or other environments where software must adapt to real users and external systems.

What matters is your ability to enter an unfamiliar operational and technical environment, understand how people and systems actually work, and turn that understanding into useful software.

Bonus Points

These are helpful, but not requirements:

• Experience developing software directly alongside operational users or domain experts

• Experience with geospatial, mapping, routing, voyage-planning, or other location-based applications

• Experience integrating software with Government or other unfamiliar external systems and services

• Experience working with role-aware workflows, permissions, or user-facing access controls

• Experience working in classified or restricted Government computing environments

• U.S. Navy or other Department of Defense experience

• Maritime, naval, meteorological, or ocean-domain experience

• A personal connection to or passion for the oceans

We know great candidates don’t always check every box. If this role interests you and you believe your experience translates well to the problems we’re working on, we encourage you to apply. Eligibility requirements for citizenship, security clearance, background check, and onsite Fleet Weather Center work still apply.