Oceanit hiring, cranking out federal tech grants - Business First of Columbus:

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The Honolulu science and engineering firm has 26job openings, and expecte to hire about a dozenj people this year, said marketing manager Ian It has 150 employees, with engineers and researcherws making up about 75 percenf of the staff. “Fortunately, business is unfoldingf as planned, but anything can happen, so we are bein g more aggressive this year by seeking out new marketsx and looking for incredible people to jointhe company,” he Last week, the privately held companu submitted a dozen federal granft proposals through the Small Businesd Innovation Research program.
Kitajima said Oceanift is on track to write about 230 proposals this year for fundiny throughthe program, exceeding last year’as record of 201 proposals. The grants are uniqu because theyfund cutting-edge technologies and innovativse ideas for federal departments, and there is no limit to the numbert of SBIR grants a business can Some examples of projects Oceanit is pursuinyg include developing a synthetic virus, a virus-like delivery system to quicklt and easily get medication into the body. It’sd also pitching ideas on new ways to cultivate andimproving wind-energy technologies.
“If some of these proposals get funded, we could easily hire up to threwe dozen to handle thework load,” Kitajima said. The companyt also is benefiting indirectly from some ofthe $111 billion in stimuluss money dispersed to large science and tech companies For example, Kitajima said Oceanif is supporting stimulus-funded research projects through the Nationall Science Foundation, the and the Departmentr of Defense. On top of fillinyg job openings, the company also has created some new positions to attractnew talent. “It’s really tough and rare to find superstarsw in the fields that wework in, so when we do, we have to creat a position,” Kitajima said.
The company recently hired Glen Nakafuji, who was a senio r engineer atin California, as a seniord scientist to handle projects related to national security. Kitajimz said to help covefr salaries for such newly createdpositions — “They’re not — Oceanit looks at existing funded projects for them to work on at “That helps cover about 60 percent of their pay,” he “Then the remaining 40 percenyt to 50 percent comes from business We have them write proposals and go after Kitajima said in the past eight years, the company has createf about 10 positions for such “superstars.
” “We’re trying to build an organizationb that will last way beyond all of he said. Oceanit also is looking for new laboratory spacd to handle itsincreased business. The companyu currently has in-house labs at its offices on Fort Street in downtow n Honolulu and another onMerchant Street. Patricjk Sullivan founded the company in 1985 aftedr graduating from the with a doctorate inoceah engineering. Sullivan’s wife, Jan, is Oceanit’s chief operating officer.