Reliability and Quality Engineer

Saildrone is a maritime defense company and the global leader in autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). With more ocean miles and real-world operational experience than any USV manufacturer or operator, Saildrone maintains active, combat-deployed systems supporting national security and force projection around the world, 24/7/365.

Saildrone’s manufacturing and R&D headquarters are located in Alameda, CA, with business development and sales operations in Washington, DC, and deployment hubs in Europe and the Middle East. By combining proven autonomous operations, edge computing, advanced sensing, renewable power, and the most advanced and robust unmanned surface technology on the planet, Saildrone is shaping how the Navy of the future operates.

Join a fast-moving, mission-driven team at the forefront of maritime security and autonomous innovation.

Saildrone is seeking a highly organized and passionate individual to join our quality engineering team. Reporting to the Manager, Quality Programs, the quality engineer will lead and participate in a wide variety of initiatives to ensure high product reliability and performance. This individual will play a key role in ensuring the world-class performance of the Saildrone’s autonomous surface vehicle and its production supply base.

The ideal candidate will be intrinsically motivated, customer focused, detailed, team-oriented and have a drive for continuous improvement.

• Monitor field performance across multiple drone platforms and identify emerging quality and reliability trends.
• Define, maintain, and report reliability KPIs suited to each product and customer use case, including MTBF, MTTF, failure rate, mean time to repair (MTTR), mission success rate, early-life failure rate, repeat failure rate, and reliability growth.
• Perform life-data and reliability analysis, including Weibull analysis, to understand failure behavior and product performance over time.
• Lead weekly field triage meetings to align teams on the most critical issues, set clear priorities, assign ownership, and turn insights into measurable actions that improve drone reliability.
• Conduct MRB meetings for returned hardware and determine appropriate disposition, including scrap, remanufacture/reuse, use-as-is, or return for further analysis
• Lead cross-functional RCA investigations including on returned hardware and drive CAPAs through closure.
• Partner with Technical Operations Support and Fleet Service to develop systems for tracking field failures, trends, customer usage, and overall reliability performance.
• Partner with Remanufacturing to develop and implement quality processes for the inspection, disposition, rework, and release of returned hardware.

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5 to 8+ years of hands-on quality engineering experience in a high-stakes, hardware-centric environment (e.g., Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, or Maritime/Robotics).
• OEM or T1 automotive, aerospace, maritime, or defense contractor experience.
• Hands-on experience troubleshooting, testing, and investigating electromechanical hardware.
• Experience defining and monitoring reliability KPIs for products operating in real-world customer environments.
• Experience applying quality and reliability methods to real-world product and field issues.
• Strong working knowledge of quality, root cause, and reliability methodologies, including 8D, FRACAS, FTA, and FMEA.
• Working knowledge of statistical and reliability analysis tools, including the Relia Soft suite.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills with the ability to work across engineering, manufacturing, operations, service, and quality teams.
• Strong planning, organizational, analytical, negotiation, interpersonal, decision-making, oral, and written communication skills.
• Comfort with the ambiguity, rapid changes, and process evolution that comes in a start-up environment. The ability to create structure where none exists.

• Six Sigma, ASQ CRE/CQE, or other relevant quality/reliability certification.
• Technical or hands on knowledge of serial and network protocols (CAN, RS-485, RS-232, SPI, I2C, and TCP/IP).
• Comfortable with Linux OS and ability to understand Shells scripts.

• Work requires the ability to be stationary for extended periods of time.
• Work requires the ability to transverse the manufacturing facility multiple times a day.
• Work requires the…