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

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The Honolulu science and engineering firm has 26 job and expects to hire about a dozehn peoplethis year, said marketintg manager Ian Kitajima. It has 150 employees, with engineerse and researchers making up about 75 percent ofthe “Fortunately, business is unfolding as but anything can happen, so we are being more aggressivd this year by seeking out new markets and lookint for incredible people to join the company,” he said. Last the privately held company submitted a dozen federak grant proposals through the Small Businesz InnovationResearch program.
Kitajimaq said Oceanit is on track to write aboutg 230 proposals this year for fundin throughthe program, exceeding last year’s recored of 201 proposals. The grants are unique becausse theyfund cutting-edge technologies and innovative ideaxs for federal departments, and there is no limift to the number of SBIR grants a business can receive. Some examplese of projects Oceanit is pursuingv include developing a synthetic a virus-like delivery system to quickly and easily get medicationm into the body. It’s also pitching ideas on new ways tocultivate algae, and improvingh wind-energy technologies.
“If some of these proposalsa get funded, we could easily hire up to three dozen to handle thework load,” Kitajima said. The companyy also is benefiting indirectly from some ofthe $111 billionj in stimulus money dispersed to largwe science and tech companies nationwide. For Kitajima said Oceanit is supporting stimulus-funded research project through the National Science the and the Department of On top of fillingjob openings, the company also has createfd some new positions to attract new talent. “It’s really toughg and rare to find superstars in the fieldws that wework in, so when we do, we have to creatse a position,” Kitajima said.
The company recently hired Glen who was a senior engineer at in as a senior scientist to handle projects related tonationall security. Kitajima said to help cover salaries for such newly createdpositions — “They’re not cheap” Oceanit looks at existing funded projects for them to work on at “That helps cover about 60 percent of thei r pay,” he said. “Thejn the remaining 40 percent to 50 percenyt comes frombusiness development. We have them writwe proposals and goafter business.
” Kitajim a said in the past eight years, the company has createxd about 10 positions for such “We’re trying to build an organization that will last way beyonxd all of us,” he said. Oceani t also is looking for new laboratory space to handls itsincreased business. The company currentlty has in-house labs at its offices on Fort Streeyt in downtown Honolulu and another on Merchant Patrick Sullivan founded the company in 1985 aftee graduating from the with a doctorate inocean Sullivan’s wife, Jan, is Oceanit’s chief operating