Systems Architect

Who are we?

Oceanvolt is a Finnish manufacturer of electric and hybrid propulsion systems for sailboats and commercial vessels, with more than 1,000 systems delivered worldwide. Our patented ServoProp saildrive uses a controllable pitch propeller for efficiency in both propulsion and hydrogeneration. We won the 2023 DAME Award and are a global leader in electric propulsion for bluewater sailing.

The role

We are looking for a Systems Architect to join our team in Konala, Helsinki (hybrid).

You will own the system architecture of our whole product portfolio (hardware interfaces, firmware, fieldbus, telemetry and backend as one integrated system) and align internal engineers, external partners and AI agents to it. The depth comes through that team; what you bring personally is architecture, written reporting, and quality control of work you did not produce. You should hold the picture across hardware and software well enough to reason about how failures and security breaches travel between them.

We fit the level of responsibility to the person. Its exact scope is settled during the selection process, and there is room to widen it later or to concentrate on the areas where you are strongest.

You will own:

• The architecture as a living, versioned artefact in a disciplined notation (e.g. C4, UML or SysML), with models validated against observed evidence (bus traces, telemetry, deployment topology) and kept in step as the systems change.
• Turning our product direction into prioritised work for internal teams, external partners and AI agents, with clear interface contracts and acceptance criteria.
• Day-to-day enforcement of code review and deliverable acceptance, especially for AI agent produced work.
• Coaching engineers, partners and trainees, and enabling our support and field engineers.

You will support the team on:

• Failure mode analysis across the hardware, firmware and backend, plus the security posture that follows from it.
• The governance framework for AI agent work
• Contractual milestone sign off with external development partners.
• A reasonable amount of hands-on prototyping and testing.

This role multiplies through people, partners and tools, and we do not expect one person to arrive complete across all of it.

What we are looking for:

• Conviction that an architecture is only useful if kept current and communicated, and the motivation to be the person who does that.
• At least one domain of genuine technical depth (e.g. embedded, controls, fieldbus, hardware or backend).
• Ability to review and verify work you did not produce, including external deliverables and AI agent output.
• Practical Git experience in team production (branch protection, merge requests, CI/CD, review culture).
• Hands-on working use of AI coding agents.
• Strong written technical English for mixed audiences: management, engineers, partners, field and support.
• A habit of owning work end to end and driving it forward without waiting for direction.

Considered a strong advantage:

• Architecture-as-code tooling (e.g. Mermaid, PlantUML, Structurizr) or version controlled diagramming discipline.
• AI agent orchestration as a managed practice: task decomposition, output verification, guardrails, credential isolation, human merge review gates.
• Able to hold a technical conversation about fieldbus (CANopen, NMEA 2000, J1939), embedded telemetry and backend services.
• Familiarity with installation, maintenance and remote support in the field (on vessels or any equipment far from the workshop).

Our stack:

• Firmware: C++, STM32
• Fieldbus: CANopen, NMEA 2000, J1939
• Telemetry: InfluxDB on AWS, Grafana
• Remote access: Tailscale
• Source, CI/CD, review: GitLab

Familiarity with any of this is welcome; we do not expect you to arrive knowing all of it.

What we offer

A pioneering company driving the future of sustainable boating, and a small team disciplined in the technical work and rooted in lean thinking. In a company this size, what you do carries real impact on our products.

How to apply

Apply through the LinkedIn posting only, as soon as possible, and no later than 15 October 2026. We review applications continuously and may move quickly.

Alongside your CV, please include a short letter covering the items below (please combine the letter and your CV into a single PDF):

• An architecture you have owned, in your own words, and how you kept it current. Please do not send confidential material from a current or previous employer.
• A time you caught a subtle error in work you were reviewing (in a design, a deliverable, or the system as it actually ran) and how you caught it.
• Something you started without being asked to: what made you decide it needed doing, and what came of it.
• Your salary request.

Beyond those, the letter is yours: tell us what you would bring to us, and why you think you would work well here.