“Developing complex technology requires many kinds of capabilities”

Groke Technologies CEO Juha Rokka discusses what kind of talents he is looking for and what Groke has to offer for its employees.

Kotaro Nishida (right) works in close co-operation with Groke Technologies CEO Juha Rokka (left).

How would you describe Groke Technologies to a potential employee?

We are a small technology startup, which focuses on the digitalisation of the marine industry. We are already a truly international company, with employees from at least five different countries. We are working with very modern and complex cyber physical solutions which require many kinds of capabilities.

What can you offer to your employees?

We can provide very motivating and challenging tasks for our people, which makes them really motivated. Work content and family-style atmosphere are the most important elements in our company culture. Salary and benefits are also at a competitive level.

What kind of experts are you looking for?

Since the beginning, our areas of expertise have been machine vision and machine learning, sensor fusion, user interface, and cloud and DevOps know-how. We are also looking for experts in sales, but we will gradually grow our technical team as well. Currently we are looking to strengthen our cloud team. We are also very active in university collaboration.

The relaxed working atmosphere at Groke Technologies has been a positive surprise for Kotaro Nishida, who is used to a much more formal working culture in Japan.

Groke’s main product now is the situational awareness system Groke Pro. What are your next steps in the digitalisation of the marine industry?

We are now focusing more on remote functionality, where we bring information from the vessel to the shore and enrich that information with relevant other data. Then the shore side officers can see the surroundings of the operating vessel and reports of near-missed or collision situations, historical operation data etcetera.

What is your take on fully autonomous vessels?

Of course, we are also interested in fully autonomous vessels and are engaged in related projects. Our current products are fundamental technology towards less human dependent operations at sea.

Read more about Kotaro Nishida’s career at Groke

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Text: Heidi Pelander
Video: Simo Ahtee