Senior Automation and Controls Engineer

BACKGROUND

The shipping industry accounts for ~3% of global CO2 emissions. If it were a country, it would rank above Germany (the 6th largest emitter in the world).

Currently, there’s no solution for ships to go 100% clean. Alternative power sources like hydrogen, ammonia, and onboard batteries are still 10-20 years away from maturity for large ships.

ABOUT SEABOUND

Seabound captures CO2 emissions from ships.

We are building a retrofittable device that traps the CO2 from a ship’s exhaust gas. It has the potential to be one of the simplest, safest, and most affordable solutions for zero-emissions shipping.

Earlier this year, we proved the concept on land and secured 6 LOIs (Letters of Intent) from major shipowners to purchase our systems from 2024 onwards. In the next 12-18 months, we will develop and demonstrate our first capture unit at sea. We are now building a founding team of engineers to help realize and demonstrate this new category of maritime climate tech.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

You will own all automation and controls in the development process of a new ship-based carbon capture system, from R&D, design, and prototyping, to manufacturing scale-up and installations. You will have significant influence over both the system itself along with the processes and machines that build the system.

What You’ll Do:

• Design, develop and manage the control system of Seabound’s ship-based carbon capture unit as well as the facility that builds and tests the units
• Architect, write and debug both PLC code and Linux/Windows software, emphasizing organization, structure, maintainability, and safety
• Own the testing and optimization of the carbon capture process
• Choose components, defining both the system and the machines that build the system, while balancing specifications, requirements, simplicity, cost, and schedule
• Collaborate with other engineers on the team; contribute to growing and building a strong engineering culture and team
• Work closely with customers, suppliers, contractors, and partners to accelerate product development
• Anything else that needs to be done in an early-stage startup

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

We are looking for:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in electrical/computer engineering, computer science, or related discipline plus 4+ years work experience; or 6+ years relevant work experience
• Extensive experience in automation, robotics, test systems, process and/or machine design, with safety at the forefront
• Experience designing and tuning PID & model-based controllers across a variety of systems, including implementation considerations such as deadzone compensation, rate limiting, anti-windup, etc.
• Software development experience in both Linux and Windows; Python and C/C++ experience
• PLC programming experience (ideally IEC61131 LAD, FBD, and ST)
• Mechanical/thermal/fluidic system modeling & simulation experience using MATLAB/Simulink, Python, or another numerical simulation environment
• Experience programming open source single board computers and microcontrollers, such as Arduino/Raspberry Pi, in addition to other common MCU platforms (e.g. STM32)
• Hands-on experience building electrical control panels and electro-mechanical systems
• Familiarity with various digital IO protocols used for embedded systems, including SPI, I2C, and TTL serial
• Experience in electrical drafting and wiring diagram creation
• Experience with TCP/IP network architecture and software development for network communication
• Familiarity with Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT, Profinet, or another industrial real-time Ethernet protocol
• Experience with REST APIs, MQTT, and OPC-UA
• Proven record of implementing and commissioning servo control systems and VFD-controlled motors
• Experience in system identification, model construction, simulation, and tuning of complex control loops
• Someone who is resourceful, ambitious, excited to tackle hard problems that no one has solved before, and holds themselves and others to a high standard
• Someone who is passionate about decarbonizing the shipping industry and tackling the climate crisis
• Ability to operate effectively with high degrees of uncertainty and to execute on tasks against tight timelines and aggressive schedules

Bonus:

• Experience leading the development of a new hardware product/technology
• Experience owning significant responsibility in a fast-paced working environment
• Experience in web application development and web-based dashboards
• Familiarity with cloud-based telemetry systems
• Familiarity with containerized software deployment strategies (e.g. docker)

Seabound is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and strive to create an environment that is inclusive to all employees.