Senior Autonomy Software Engineer
About this role
We are looking for a Senior Autonomy Software Engineer with 5+ years of experience to own the autonomy and perception stack for our autonomous underwater vehicle platform from the ground up. You'll join a ~7-person team building attritable UUVs that operate in radio-denied environments, making all navigation, detection, and targeting decisions independently. This is a greenfield opportunity — you'll architect and ship production autonomy software on hardware (Nvidia Jetson Orin AGX) that has never been deployed on an autonomous underwater vehicle before. We need someone who thrives in early-stage, high-urgency environments and has actually built and deployed autonomy systems on real-world platforms. You'll report directly to the Head of Autonomy & Software and help shape the technical direction of the entire autonomy org.
What will you be doing?
Designing and implementing the full autonomy stack from scratch — mission planning, path planning, object detection/recognition, obstacle avoidance, and autonomous decision-making for underwater operations
Developing both ML-based and classical perception pipelines that run efficiently on power-constrained embedded compute (Nvidia Jetson Orin AGX)
Taking the vehicle from prototype to executing real 3-day autonomous missions within your first 90 days
Supporting field testing — deploying scale models in dive pools, running sea trials in the ocean, and performing live telemetry debugging from shore
Owning your system end-to-end as a Responsible Engineer: from requirements and architecture through simulation, field validation, and production deployment
Company at a glance
This defense technology startup, founded in 2024 by veterans from SpaceX, Tesla, and Vast Space, develops multi-domain autonomous systems for the U.S. Navy at significantly lower costs than established competitors.
What happens next
Skip the application pile. I get you in front of the people who decide.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I pitch you to the company
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
When the company wants to meet, I get the call on your calendar. You just show up.
Culture & values
SpaceX-inspired culture with strong Responsible Engineer model
Every engineer owns their system end-to-end: requirements, design, implementation, testing, field deployment, and production
Team moves fast, works hard, and expects urgency that early-stage defense demands
Values builders over researchers, first-principles thinking over inherited convention, and speed over process
Decisions driven by physics, test data, and product outcomes
No organizational handoffs or siloed responsibilities
Greenfield environment with no legacy code or inherited architecture
Hands-on engineering culture with work in lab, dive pool, and field deployments
Small elite team of ~7 people where every hire has outsized impact
Rapid iteration and intensity expected
Engineers make foundational technical decisions from scratch
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