Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities

Responsibilities

• Design tactical autonomy algorithms for unmanned aircraft operating across air, land, and sea domains with minimal human supervision.
• Develop high-performance software for planning, decision-making, and behavior execution in dynamic, adversarial environments.
• Implement and test behavior architectures supporting multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability.
• Integrate classical autonomy and machine learning, including rule-based systems and reinforcement learning.
• Collaborate with perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight-test teams to integrate autonomy solutions on real-world platforms.
• Deploy autonomy capabilities to operational platforms and participate in field tests, flight demonstrations, and live exercises.
• Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures and optimize behavior models.
• Research and prototype algorithms, identify tactical capability gaps, and contribute to the autonomy roadmap.
• Adapt autonomy solutions to defense programs, customer needs, compliance requirements, and operational feedback.
• Travel approximately 10–15% of the year to offices, customer sites, and flight-integration events.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Typically 10 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 9 years with a master’s degree, or 7 years with a PhD, or equivalent work experience.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python; familiarity with real-time operating systems.
• Significant experience with robotics technologies involving motion planning, behavior modeling, decision-making, or autonomous-system design.
• Significant experience with unmanned-system technologies and algorithms, particularly in the air domain.
• Experience with simulation environments such as AFSIM and NGTS for testing and validation.
• Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, and system-optimization skills.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills in multidisciplinary environments.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience applying machine learning or reinforcement learning to autonomy pipelines.
• Background in collaborative behaviors, swarm robotics, or distributed decision-making.
• Familiarity with tactical behaviors for unmanned systems in Department of Defense or government programs.
• Experience developing behaviors for air, ground, and maritime vehicles.
• Hands-on experience supporting flight demonstrations or live exercises.
• Experience with UCI and OMS standards.

Compensation

• Annual salary range: $280,512–$420,768.