In my day job I make high tech equipment for ships. My customers are users on all types of ships from arctic to Antarctic and everywhere n between. 1/2 our engineering team is SW. all our engineers go in the field (be it local boat tests for the day or customer visits on the other side of the world). There are 100s of companies that need software engineers in the marine market. My work involves science to make our technology effective but we are not marine scientists. You can find these types of companies all over the place but many within driving distances of universities with marine science/technology programs.
That being said, I’ve designed lots of field tests for our products. I’ve worked on joint projects with scientists from academia. And I’ve been invited to the ice trials on board famous research vessels.
If you want to do more direct science, then you want to work for the users of marine products. These people are in the field a lot more and often performing the “science”. Research institutes associated with universities always need professional sw talent. But they don’t pay anywhere near industry. Check out institutes in FL, MA, RI, CA, MS, WA, NH.