Michael Gordon Johnson

Founder and Chief Technology Officer Sea Machines Robotics

Last Reviewed: September 24, 2026

Executive Summary

Michael Gordon Johnson is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Sea Machines Robotics, a Boston company that builds autonomous command-and-control and computer-vision systems for boats and ships. He started it in 2015 as a marine engineer with two decades in the industry, on the premise that vessel operations still depended far too heavily on manual control and human perception while aviation and automotive had already moved on. He ran the company as CEO for nearly ten years, taking it from a single-person project with a prototype tug to a supplier of retrofit autonomy to commercial operators, shipbuilders and navies. In November 2024, with Sea Machines increasingly selling into defense, he handed the CEO role to David “Chip” Wasson, a former Huntington Ingalls strategy executive, and moved to lead technology.

Career Highlights

• Founded Sea Machines in 2015, starting with a shared office in Cambridge and a prototype developed with Jaybridge Robotics.
• Raised roughly $40 million in private financings between 2017 and 2023, according to the company’s SEC Form D filings.
• Oversaw the tug Nellie Bly’s 1,000-nautical-mile autonomous voyage in October 2021, which Sea Machines described as a world first.
• Stepped aside as CEO in November 2024 in favour of David “Chip” Wasson, becoming President and CTO, after a year of record sales.
• Before Sea Machines, served as a vice president at Crowley Maritime Corp. and its affiliate TITAN Salvage.

Professional Journey

Johnson trained as a marine engineer at Texas A&M University and spent his early career on complex projects in offshore oil and gas, marine transportation and salvage. Before founding Sea Machines he was a vice president at Crowley Maritime Corp. and its salvage affiliate, TITAN Salvage.

In January 2015, by his own account, Sea Machines was an idea, one person and a shared office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working with Jaybridge Robotics on a first prototype. The company bought a 25-foot twin-screw tug, set up a shop at Boston Harbor Shipyard, and worked through remote control and low-level automation before settling in May 2017 on the architecture that became its SM300 autonomous command and control system. It went through the MassChallenge accelerator in 2016 and then turned to venture capital: SEC filings record about $1.5 million raised in 2017, $10.1 million in 2018, $14.9 million in 2020 and $14.1 million at the end of 2023, with Johnson named as executive officer and director throughout.

The technology’s appeal was that it could be fitted to existing vessels rather than requiring new ones. Sea Machines’ systems were adopted by partners including Rolls-Royce and HamiltonJet, and in October 2021 the tug Nellie Bly completed a 1,000-nautical-mile autonomous voyage, which the company called the first of its kind. Over the following years its customer base shifted toward defense.

That shift shaped a change of leadership. In November 2024 Sea Machines named David “Chip” Wasson, a former naval flight officer and investment banker who had led strategy and corporate development at Huntington Ingalls, as CEO. Johnson, saying it was the right time for Wasson to “take the helm”, became President and Chief Technology Officer, and the company reported record sales for 2024. In September 2025, launching an expanded product line for defense customers, Sea Machines quoted him as its founder and CTO. The company, still headquartered in Boston, has since reported record bookings in 2026, a US Special Operations Forces contract and work on US Navy autonomous ship programmes.

Education

Texas A&M University

Marine Engineering