Head of Maritime Certification & Regulatory Strategy (IC)

Orca AI is building the future of maritime navigation. Having secured recognition from ABS, Lloyd’s Register, and ClassNK, we are moving from theory to global scale. As a senior-level Individual Contributor (IC), you will be the primary architect of our safety cases, the lead author of our technical submissions, and the direct technical interface with Class surveyors.

As a hands-on Individual Contributor, you will own the end-to-end certification lifecycle. You aren't just managing a process; you are the primary architect of our safety cases, the lead author of our technical submissions, and the direct interface with Class surveyors and engineers.

Impact: Hand-build the regulatory engine that powers the world’s leading autonomous navigation platform.

What You’ll Own

• End-to-End Submissions: Personally author and manage the technical dossiers for Product Design Assessments (PDA) and Type Approvals across DNV, ABS, LR, BV, and ClassNK.
• Technical Risk Execution: Facilitate and document FMEA, HAZID, and HAZOP workshops, turning raw engineering data into structured, defensible safety arguments.
• Regulatory Engineering: Work deep within the product cycle to map SOLAS, COLREG, and IACS UR E27 requirements into specific design specs and JIRA tickets.
• Evidence Strategy: Hands-on collection and analysis of sea-trial data to build "equivalent safety" cases for AI-driven systems.
• Audit & Lifecycle Ownership: Maintain the "Live" certification state of our fleet, ensuring every software release stays within the "Certified" envelope.



Why This Role Matters: You are the bridge between "Black Box" AI and "Rule-Based" Maritime Law. By joining as a hands-on lead, you will personally define the safety standards that will govern the next generation of autonomous shipping.

Experience Requirements

• 8+ Years of "In the Trenches" Experience: You have a proven track record within a Classification Society or a maritime tech company, specifically focused on Bridge Systems or Navigation Technologies.
• Direct PDA & Type Approval Success: You have personally led at least 2–3 complex systems through the full Product Design Assessment (PDA) or Type Approval lifecycle from start to finish.
• Rule Mastery (Hands-on Application): You don't just know IMO, SOLAS, and COLREGs exist; you have written safety cases that interpret these rules for novel technologies.
• Risk Assessment Facilitation: You are an expert at running HAZID/FMEA sessions and can translate technical failure modes into regulatory risk profiles.
• Autonomy & AI Exposure (Strongly Preferred): Experience navigating Technology Qualification frameworks for AI-enabled or autonomous systems (MASS).

Who You Are

• The "Player-Architect": You can read a system architecture diagram as easily as a rulebook.
• The Solo Driver: You are comfortable building your own documentation repositories and driving results without a large support staff.
• The Technical Diplomat: You know how to "unstick" a complex approval process by speaking the specific technical language of Class surveyors.