Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities – Maritime

Responsibilities

• Lead technical direction for maritime autonomy capabilities and architectures across multiple programs.
• Develop advanced motion planning for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), including safety constraints, keep-out volumes, vehicle interactions, and depth limitations.
• Design passive and active localization and tracking approaches, sensor-fusion modalities, sensor requirements, and observability-aware maneuvering for single- and multi-agent networks.
• Build safe autonomous behavior architectures with runtime assurance and COLREGS adherence.
• Develop distributed optimization and task-allocation approaches for heterogeneous multi-agent collaboration.
• Develop high-performance, well-tested software modules with clear interfaces for mid-to-high Technology Readiness Level insertions.
• Collaborate with perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and operational test teams to integrate autonomy onto real-world platforms.
• Deploy capabilities to surface vehicles, support integration and demonstrations, analyze mission logs, and validate operational performance.
• Research and prototype algorithms, identify tactical capability gaps, and contribute to autonomy roadmaps.
• Mentor engineers and translate ambiguous customer needs into design approaches.
• Travel approximately 25% of the year for office, customer, and integration events.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a similar field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum related experience of 10 years with a bachelor's degree, 9 years with a master's degree, or 7 years with a PhD, or equivalent experience.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python; familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS).
• Significant experience with robotics motion planning, behavior modeling, decision-making, or autonomous system design.
• Significant experience with unmanned systems and related algorithms.
• Experience with simulation tools and environments such as AFSIM and NGTS.
• Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, and system optimization skills.
• Excellent communication and multidisciplinary teamwork skills.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience across multiple aerospace domains, including air, land, sea, or space.
• Experience with classical control, optimization, and applied machine learning or reinforcement learning.
• Background in collaborative behaviors and swarm robotics.
• Familiarity with relevant Department of Defense or government programs.
• Hands-on experience supporting integration events, customer demonstrations, or live exercises.

Compensation

• Annual salary range: $220,800–$331,200.