Founding Robotics Engineer — Build the Drones Hunting Ocean Plastic

Remote Worldwide | Flexible Commitment (Part-time to Full-time) | Equity | Frequent International Field Work

About Retide

Every minute, the equivalent of a garbage truck of plastic enters the ocean.

And yet, our ability to see where that plastic is, understand how it moves, and measure the impact of removing it is still surprisingly limited.

Retide is building the intelligence infrastructure to change that.

We use AI, robotics and environmental data to help organizations better understand plastic pollution, improve recovery efforts, and create stronger evidence of environmental impact.

Our long-term vision is a world where we can understand how plastic moves through the environment, identify where intervention matters most, and measure what happens when we act.

We're a Canadian ocean-tech startup working alongside cleanup organizations and environmental partners to build and test our technology in the real world.

We're now expanding our work into autonomous aerial systems and looking for a founding engineer to help build this next part of Retide.

Where We Are Today

Retide was founded in early 2025 and is currently at the pre-seed stage.

Since then, we've moved from concept development into field testing and validation, while building the partnerships and market access needed to bring our technology into the real world.

Today:

• We're part of Canada's leading AI, climate-tech and ocean innovation ecosystems, including NextAI, Foresight Canada and the Ocean Startup Project
• We've established partnerships with key stakeholders across the plastic recovery and plastic credit ecosystem globaly.
• We've built relationships and early distribution channels that give us access to cleanup operators, field environments and potential users of our technology
• We're working with environmental, research and industry partners across Canada, Germany, Brazil and Southeast Asia
• We've begun collecting real-world beach and drone data alongside cleanup organizations
• Retide was recognized among Scale AI's 2025 Top 100 AI Startups in Canada

We have the partnerships, field access and early market pathways. Now we're building the technology and technical team to turn that into something real.

The Role

We're looking for a Founding Robotics & Autonomous Systems Engineer to lead the development of Retide's drone and field robotics capabilities.

You'll work across autonomy, sensing, robotics software and field experimentation to explore how drones can make environmental monitoring faster, more consistent and more useful to the people working on the ground.

This is an early founding role.

You won't be joining a large robotics team with a predetermined roadmap. You'll help determine what we build, how we build it, and what technical bets we make along the way.

You'll prototype. You'll test. You'll break things. You'll take technology into the field, learn from what happens, and build again.

What You'll Work On

In the first few months, you'll likely be:

• Building and testing initial drone autonomy and sensing systems using our existing field data and partner environments
• Traveling to Brazil or Southeast Asia for at least one field deployment, working directly alongside cleanup partners
• Helping us decide where to build custom hardware/software integrations versus adapt existing platforms (e.g. PX4/ArduPilot) for our specific monitoring needs

Beyond that, the role spans the full robotics stack: mission and path planning, UAV sensing and data acquisition, camera and sensor integration, localization and geospatial data, and edge computing and onboard systems. You'll work closely with our AI and software team to take ideas from research and prototypes to systems that operate reliably in real-world environments.

We're Looking for Someone Who

• Has strong experience in robotics, autonomous systems, UAVs or a closely related field
• Has built and tested real robotic systems, not only simulations
• Is comfortable working across hardware and software
• Can move from research to prototype to experiment to iteration quickly
• Takes ownership rather than waiting for detailed requirements
• Is comfortable working in an early-stage startup where priorities evolve as we learn
• Is excited to spend time in the field, not just behind a computer

Experience with UAV autonomy, ROS/ROS2, PX4/ArduPilot, embedded systems, sensors, edge computing, computer vision, photogrammetry or remote sensing is valuable. A graduate degree (MSc/PhD) in a relevant field is a plus but not required — we care more about demonstrated ability to build and validate real-world robotic systems.
We're more interested in what you can build and how quickly you can learn than whether you check every box.

Commitment & Compensation

We're flexible on commitment level. This role can start at 20 hours per week or move to full-time immediately for the right person — we'd rather structure around what works for you than force a fixed schedule this early.

At our current pre-seed stage, this is an equity-based role, with the intention of transitioning to salary + equity following our next funding round, currently targeted for Q2 2027.

Location & Field Work

Retide is remote worldwide — you can be based anywhere. Our founder is a digital nomad.

This role involves frequent international travel for field testing and deployments, concentrated across Canada, Brazil and Southeast Asia.

Field work logistics: Core travel costs for scheduled field deployments are covered by Retide.

This isn't a purely remote AI role. We want someone excited to take models into the field, work alongside our partners, see where they fail, and use that to make them better.

What It's Like to Build at Retide

We're small, ambitious and still early. That means everyone has a voice in what Retide becomes.

We value curiosity over ego, ownership over titles, and progress over perfection. We care about rigorous science and thoughtful engineering, but we also believe technology only matters if it works outside the lab — which means learning alongside the communities and organizations already doing this work on the ground.

You should be excited by ambiguity, comfortable challenging assumptions, and willing to get your hands dirty — sometimes literally.

Why Join Now

You'll join Retide at a point where many of our most important technical decisions have yet to be made. You'll have the opportunity to shape our robotics architecture, research direction and engineering culture from the beginning — working directly with the founder and a small technical team, with significant ownership over what you build.

And you'll be building technology intended to help us better understand and protect our oceans and coastlines.

If you're excited about robotics, oceans and building things that haven't existed before, we'd love to hear from you.

How to Apply

Please send us an email at [email protected] including:

• Your resume or LinkedIn profile
• A portfolio of relevant work — GitHub, papers, demos, or projects that show what you've built (this matters more to us than the resume)
• A short note (2–4 sentences) on why this role and mission specifically resonate with you
• One project you're proud of, and a brief note on the reasoning or tradeoffs behind it
• Your availability — how many hours you can realistically commit, and whether frequent international travel works for your situation right now