Deputy Node Lead

About the Company

We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.

The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis.

Our staff have worked at organizations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Tesla, Apple, Virgin Orbit, Astra, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, New Relic, Bridgewater, Raytheon, Disney Imagineering, and the US Army and Air Force, as well as research universities, startups, and small companies across a range of industries.

About the Job

Our core technology is the node, a device that produces energy in the ocean’s harshest conditions for years at a time without human maintenance or intervention. The node is a first-of-its-kind system integrating mechanical structures, electrical power, embedded controls, software, data, operations, and ocean deployment realities. There are few precedents and no roadmaps.

As Deputy Node Lead, you will serve as a trusted strategic and execution partner to the Vice President of Node Program and help lead our largest technical program through its next stages of growth. This is a director-level role in scope, impact, and expectation. The current Node leadership team brings deep mechanical engineering expertise and strong program planning discipline; this role complements that leadership with additional technical breadth — ideally in electrical systems, embedded software, controls, systems engineering, integration and test, or software-enabled hardware programs. You will be expected to understand the full program and contribute wherever needed, while taking direct ownership of a subset of responsibilities based on your expertise. You will go deep with engineers, zoom out with executives, and lead through influence, credibility, and judgment rather than formal reporting authority.

Candidates should have strong interpersonal skills and be able to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis. You will own your designs cradle-to-grave, from first concept through fabrication and deployment at sea. If you are an excellent engineer, regardless of your background, we want you to apply.

We strive to be the best engineering team on the planet and we compensate our team accordingly.

Responsibilities

• Deliver node designs and physical nodes that meet performance targets, are executable within available resources, arrive on the necessary timeline, and are technically coherent across hardware, software, data, operations, and deployment.
• Lead planning, execution, and delivery of the Node program, partnering with technical program managers, engineering leaders, and functional teams to manage scope, schedule, budget, resources, and dependencies.
• Strengthen program operating rhythms by leading planning cycles, milestone reviews, decision forums, and execution tracking.  Translate company-level goals into actionable program priorities.
• Drive early identification of risks and opportunities, with clear mitigation or capture plans and appropriate visibility across the organization.
• Own strategic leadership for systems engineering, architecture, and integration, ensuring mechanical, electrical, software, controls, data, test, operations, and deployment considerations form a coherent whole.
• Lead trade studies and decision-making across performance, reliability, manufacturability, cost, schedule, and operational complexity.
• Serve as a senior point of contact for program status, risks, milestones, decisions, and tradeoffs, communicating clearly to executive stakeholders and technical teams.
• Drive clarity in ambiguous technical and organizational contexts, ensuring decisions are made at the right level with the right inputs, and clarifying ownership, priorities, interfaces, and decision rights across teams.
• Build trust across engineering, program management, operations, supply chain, finance, and executive stakeholders, and coach technical leads through ambiguity, tradeoffs, and execution challenges.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of experience in complex technical environments, preferably involving hardware/software integrated systems, including 5+ years in technical leadership, program leadership, or engineering management.
• Depth in at least one relevant domain, such as electrical systems, embedded software, controls or autonomy, systems engineering, integration and test, software-enabled hardware, enterprise software or data systems, turbomachinery or generators, or manufacturing and operations for complex hardware.
• Proven experience helping lead large, complex technical programs from planning through execution, spanning engineering, test, manufacturing, operations, software, or supply chain.
• Strong systems thinking, including the ability to reason across technical, schedule, cost, resource, and organizational constraints.
• Demonstrated ability to earn trust with senior technical teams and communicate complex technical topics clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong judgment in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with incomplete information.

Desired Qualifications

• Prior experience as an engineering leader, integrated product team lead, or senior technical program or systems leader on electrical, embedded software, controls, autonomy, or software-intensive hardware programs.
• Experience in ocean technology, energy systems, aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, industrial equipment, or other complex engineered products.
• Demonstrated strength in influence-based leadership, including coaching, team development, accountability, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Master’s degree or PhD in a relevant technical field; PMP, systems engineering, or related certifications.
• Familiarity with tools such as Jira, Confluence, MS Project, Smartsheet, or similar planning and execution systems.

The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed.

Additional Requirements

• Travel to vendors and test sites as needed
• Intermittently able to work longer hours and weekends to support critical needs. While we expect a lot of each other, we also offer a high degree of autonomy and work-life balance, including flexiblePTO and flexible working hours.

Compensation and Benefits

If hired for this full-time role, you will receive:

• Cash compensation of $210,000 - $280,000.
• Equity in the company. We’re all owners and if we’re successful, this equity should be far and away the most valuable component of your compensation.
• A benefits package that helps you take care of yourself and your family, including:
  • Flexible paid time off
  • Health insurance (the company pays 100% of gold-level PPO plan for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Dental insurance (the company pays 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Vision insurance (the company pays 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Disability insurance (the company pays 100% for a policy to provide long-term financial support if you become disabled)
  • Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA
• Relocation assistance to facilitate your move to Portland (if needed).

Location

This is an on-site position. Our offices, lab, and shop are located inPortland, Oregon.