Nautronix

Nautronix

What’s your background?

I first studied Electrical Engineering at the Robert Gordon Institute of Technology (RGIT), or The Robert Gordon University (RGU) as it’s now known, and started out as an electrical engineer more than 20 years ago. I guess you would say that I’m part of the furniture here at Nautronix.

Prior to my new role as Director of Technology, I held a number of posts within the company, ranging from Design Engineer and Service & Production Manager to Director of Engineering and Technology.

My role has changed recently to focus more specifically on technology. My work now involves the development of new technologies and exploring long-term innovations.

Tell us about Nautronix. What work are you involved with?

Nautronix are global leaders in through-water communication and positioning technology for the offshore industry. Our technology sits within a number of acoustic positioning and communication products for companies working in the oil and gas sector.

We’re involved with the full life cycle of applications; from developing and scoping a company’s initial requirements through to the design, manufacturing, rental, installation and long term life of field applications.

We offer a number of solutions including deep water acoustic positioning system NASDrill RS925, and an underwater GPS-like system, NASNet® (Nautronix Acoustic Subsea Network), that provides field-wide, multi-user positioning capabilities.

Our Emergency BOP (NASeBOP) Digital Acoustic Control System provides wireless control and monitoring on drillships for critical applications such as BOP Control. This wireless acoustic system provides a high signal integrity and robustness allowing ultra-deepwater drillships to be safely disconnected in an emergency situation, and is particularly useful for drilling contractors.

What kind of opportunities does Nautronix offer engineers?

We’re a technology-driven company and pride ourselves in offering a diverse and challenging work environment. We work with leading edge technologies in all engineering disciplines which, for an engineer, provides the ultimate challenge and job satisfaction. This is reflected by the fact that we have a very low turnover of engineering staff.

There are 70 of us in Aberdeen currently but this is likely to rise to 80 in the next few months. We also have four support staff in Houston, Texas and have just recently opened an office in Brazil.

Are there many benefits to being based in Aberdeen?

The technology and expertise here are good. Our customer base has strong representation in Aberdeen, as well as across the globe. The infrastructure for the oil and gas industry is strong and there is also huge growth in the subsea sector.

On top of this, Aberdeen has a local pool of relevant talent and expertise as the result of decades of past success.

What are your plans for the future?

We’ve recently received significant orders to supply our NASDrill RS925 positioning systems and NASeBOP control systems to a number of new ultra-deep water drillships being built in Korea.

We are currently working on a number of exciting opportunities and are forecasting significant growth for the years ahead. As a result of this we are increasing our staff levels and currently have a number of open positions across a range of levels and experiences for good, solid people who like working in a very good team environment.