Job Description

Come join us: a rare opportunity to join Ocean Advisor as one of our Founding Software Engineering positions - a mission-driven, high-impact role at the intersection of AI, climate tech, and marine science.

🎯 The Mission

We’re building a platform to help the global fishing industry fish smarter, not harder, using predictive insights powered by geophysical data, satellite imagery, and machine learning. The goal? Dramatically boost yields while reducing environmental impact.This isn’t theory -- we’re operating as a joint venture with a shareholding fishing company, ensuring our platform has real-world, high-stakes application from day one.At Ocean Advisor, economics and sustainability are fundamentally aligned: every smarter fishing decision enhances both profitability and ecological resilience.

🌊 The Vision

A world where every commercial fishing decision is data-backed, driving sustainability, profitability, and resilience across the oceans.

👩‍💻 The Role: Founding Engineer

As the internal technical hire, you’ll be owning the core codebase (Python) and building our entire data infrastructure on AWS -- from ingesting marine, satellite, and geophysical data to deploying scalable AI systems.You'll work directly with the founder and strategic partners to align technical execution with big-picture business goals.Your responsibilities will include:

Designing and maintaining robust, scalable backend infrastructure
Architecting data pipelines for complex marine & satellite datasets
Managing cloud storage, data transfer, and backup systems
Enforcing best practices in devops, security, and maintainability
Setting the tone for future engineering hires

We’re looking for:Strong Python skills (especially for data/ML-heavy apps)
AWS and cloud infra mastery
Experience with geospatial/satellite data (SAR a huge plus)
Deep understanding of data security, architecture, and performance

Ideally B2B SaaS experience in complex or resource-intensive environments

🛠 Work Setup & Culture

Founder, Richard Wright: Ph.D. in Geography + MBA from UCLA, created Ocean Adviser from Scratch
Team
Flexible hybrid: ~2 days/week in Laguna Niguel, CA
Comfortable with ambiguity, high velocity, and big bets
Entrepreneurial mindset required—you’ll build, shape, and own
Strong scientific curiosity is a bonus

💸 Compensation & Perks

Salary: $100–170K
Equity: not off the gate, exceptional - owner innovating & driving the value of the firm - its in the firms interest that you're an owner

Health, dental, and vision (same plan as the founder)

ADP total source - better benefits relied on joined venture partner - meant for larger orgs)

Laptop provided

Minimum 15 days off, with unlimited PTO and monthly Flexible Fridays
Mission-aligned team deeply focused on ocean sustainability

If you're excited about building from 0 to 1 at the edge of AI and ocean tech—and you want your work to directly improve the sustainability of a $150B global industry—let’s talk.Looking forward to hearing from you.

About OpenReq

OpenReq is the embedded recruiting firm built for early-stage startups (Seed to Series B) in the AI & Hard Tech space.

We help founders manage the end-to-end recruiting process from sourcing to closing, integrating with your team and systems to deliver world-class hires quickly.

We're the preferred recruiting partner for Bain Capital, Lux Capital, Autotech Ventures, and other reputable VCs, and we've had a chance to hire 100+ engineers for Etched, Advex AI, NEX, and other fast-growing startups.

Our customers love us:

https://bit.ly/openreqg2

Industry

HR & Recruiting

Company Size

11-50 employees

Headquarters

San Diego, CA

Year Founded

2020

Website

openreq.co

Social Media

Ocean Advisor - Software Engineer