Mission Autonomy Lead

What you'll do

• Own the autonomy software architecture for planning, execution, perception, and debriefing.
• Drive the design of mission planning systems for autonomous aviation operations.
• Develop mission execution software to manage vehicle behavior during flights.
• Own perception systems that enable the vehicle to sense and interpret its environment.
• Build and maintain software development infrastructure including CI/CD, simulation, and SITL/HITL.
• Define interfaces between the autonomy stack and vehicle management systems using MOSA principles.
• Manage autonomy deliverables and MBSE artifacts such as SysML models and requirements traceability.
• Drive the development of test and simulation fixtures for autonomy validation.

What we're looking for

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent.
• 8+ years of experience in autonomous systems, robotics, or AI/ML.
• Experience delivering software through full product development cycles.
• Demonstrated experience with autonomous navigation, planning, or perception systems.
• Experience with modeling, simulation, and SITL/HITL testing.
• Experience developing safety-critical or high-assurance software.
• Proficiency in C++ and/or Python for real-time and mission-critical software systems.
• Experience with Linux-based embedded or real-time operating systems.
• Experience with version control and CI/CD tooling such as Git, Jenkins, or GitLab CI.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance.
• Experience with autonomous aviation systems (UAS, UAV, or manned-unmanned teaming) (preferred).
• Working knowledge of behavior trees or mission planning frameworks (preferred).
• Experience with computer vision, EO/IR sensor processing, or airborne perception (preferred).
• Familiarity with distributed software architectures and edge computing (preferred).
• Experience designing to open systems architecture standards (MOSA/WOSA) for defense acquisition programs (preferred).
• Familiarity with MBSE tooling and digital engineering practices (SysML, Cameo, Jama, or similar) (preferred).
• Familiarity with containerization and deployment tooling (Docker, Kubernetes) for edge/embedded deployment (preferred).
• Experience with simulation environments relevant to aviation/flight dynamics (e.g., Gazebo, JSBSim, X-Plane) (preferred).
• Experience with real-time middleware/pub-sub frameworks (DDS, ZeroMQ, or similar) for distributed autonomy systems (preferred).
• Familiarity with cross-compilation and toolchains for embedded/resource-constrained compute (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson) (preferred).
• Experience with static analysis, formal verification, or certification-adjacent tooling (e.g., MISRA C++, DO-178C-adjacent practices) (preferred).