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 on maritime route optimization, vessel performance modeling, and voyage analysis capabilities for U.S. Government and defense customers.

This is a hands-on software engineering role working directly on the software that models vessel performance and evaluates candidate maritime routes.

Depending on the problem, you may be refining optimization algorithms, translating vessel performance and fuel-consumption models into software, building simulation and evaluation tooling, or improving how route recommendations are scored and explained.

You’ll work on problems involving:

• Maritime voyage optimization and route evaluation

• Vessel performance and fuel-consumption modeling across varying operating and environmental conditions

• Voyage constraints, transit time, fuel efficiency, and operational considerations

• Optimization algorithms and the software that supports them

• Simulation and evaluation capabilities used to understand optimizer behavior and route quality

• Clear, explainable results that allow users to understand and evaluate optimization recommendations

You’ll contribute to both existing Sofar technology and new software developed for government maritime applications as these capabilities evolve.

The Impact

Maritime route optimization means balancing competing considerations: fuel consumption, transit time, vessel performance, environmental conditions, voyage constraints, and operational needs.

You’ll collaborate with engineers, product experts, and maritime domain specialists to translate those real-world problems into practical software solutions.

Your work will focus on the core engineering behind voyage analysis and optimization — improving models, algorithms, simulation capabilities, and the software that connects them — with the goal of producing recommendations that are useful, understandable, and defensible.

Our optimization, modeling, and simulation software includes Rust and Python. You may work across both high- and low-level languages while contributing to algorithms, models, services, APIs, testing, and related software components.

This position supports U.S. Department of Defense customers. Candidates should be comfortable working on technology used in defense and military applications. Previous defense experience is not required.

About You

Eligibility

• U.S. citizenship is required for this position

• Must be able to successfully pass a background check

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience contributing to production software

• Experience with Python and/or a compiled language such as Rust, C++, C, or similar

• Comfortable working with algorithms, data structures, and computational problems

• Ability to translate domain or mathematical concepts into maintainable, testable software

• Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset when working across engineering and domain disciplines

• Comfortable working on software supporting U.S. Government and Department of Defense customers

Your Experience Doesn’t Have to Come From Maritime

We don’t expect candidates to arrive with maritime route optimization experience.

Relevant experience may come from robotics, logistics, aerospace, autonomy, transportation, scientific computing, operations research, simulation, or other domains involving optimization of physical systems.

What matters is your ability to take complex real-world problems and translate them into software that can model, evaluate, and help solve them.

Bonus Points

These are helpful, but not requirements:

• A degree in physics or a related technical field

• Experience developing optimization, modeling, or simulation software for real-world systems

• Maritime or naval domain experience

• Previous experience supporting U.S. Government or Department of Defense customers

• 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.