Oceanit hiring, cranking out federal tech grants - Boston Business Journal:

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The Honolulu science and engineering firm has 26 job and expects to hire about a dozen peopledthis year, said marketing manager Ian Kitajima. It has 150 with engineers and researchers making up about 75 percent ofthe staff. “Fortunately, business is unfolding as but anythingcan happen, so we are beingb more aggressive this year by seekin out new markets and looking for incrediblwe people to join the company,” he said. Last the privately held company submitted a dozen federal granf proposals through the Small Business InnovationResearch program.
Kitajima said Oceanitf is on track to writed about 230 proposals this year for funding through the exceedinglast year’s record of 201 The grants are unique because they fund cutting-edge technologies and innovativd ideas for federal departments, and there is no limit to the numbee of SBIR grants a business can receive. Some example of projects Oceanit is pursuing include developing asynthetif virus, a virus-like delivery system to quickly and easily get medication into the body. It’se also pitching ideas on new ways tocultivatr algae, and improving wind-energy “If some of these proposals get we could easily hire up to three dozen to handle the work Kitajima said.
The company also is benefiting indirectly from some ofthe $111 billio n in stimulus money dispersed to large science and tech companiesx nationwide. For example, Kitajima said Oceanit is supportinbg stimulus-funded research projects through the NationaloScience Foundation, the and the Department of Defense. On top of fillingv job openings, the company also has created some new positionw to attractnew talent. “It’s reallt tough and rare to find superstars in the fieldx that wework in, so when we do, we have to creater a position,” Kitajima said.
The company recentlyu hired Glen Nakafuji, who was a senior engineer at in California, as a senior scientist to handle projects related to national Kitajima said to help cove r salaries for such newly createdpositions — “They’rew not cheap” — Oceanit looks at existinb funded projects for them to work on at first. “That help s cover about 60 percent oftheir pay,” he said. “Thenj the remaining 40 percent to 50 percenrt comes frombusiness development. We have them writd proposals and goafter business.” Kitajimaz said in the past eight years, the company has created about 10 positions for such “superstars.
” “We’re trying to buil an organization that will last way beyond all of he said. Oceanit also is looking for new laboratory spacw to handle itsincreased business. The companuy currently has in-house labs at its offices on Fort Streett in downtown Honolulu and another onMerchant Street. Patrick Sullivan foundedr the company in 1985 after graduating from the with a doctoratr inocean engineering. Sullivan’s wife, Jan, is Oceanit’e chief operating officer.