Senior Autonomy Software Engineer

At a Glance
Position Senior Autonomy Software Engineer
Company Defense technology startup (founded 2024) building attritable autonomous
underwater vehicles (UUVs)
Traction Multimillion-dollar contracts with the U.S. Navy; expanding into multi-
domain autonomy
Team ~7 people; founders and team from SpaceX, Tesla, Archer Aviation, Vast
Space, and Castellion
Location Los Angeles, CA — 5 days per week in office
Experience Level 5–15 years in autonomy, perception, or robotics software engineering
Compensation $160,000 – $230,000 base + 0.5% equity
Tech Stack C++, Python, ROS, PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV, CUDA, Nvidia Jetson Orin
AGX, Linux, Docker, SIL/HIL simulation, sensor fusion, computer vision, ML
Work Authorization U.S. citizen eligible for security clearance (Green Card minimum) — no visa
sponsorship
Openings 2–3
About the Company
Our client is a defense technology company pioneering the future of autonomous undersea warfare.
Founded in 2024, the company is developing advanced unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) designed to
be attritable — cheap, easy to manufacture, and purpose-built for one-way missions that eliminate threats
like naval mines at scale.
Unlike larger defense contractors or even mid-tier defense startups, the company builds vehicles that are an
order of magnitude cheaper than better-known competitors in the autonomous defense space. The strategic
philosophy is simple: send hundreds of autonomous vehicles into contested waters to execute missions
without needing to return. This fundamentally changes the calculus of undersea warfare.
The company already holds multimillion-dollar contracts with the U.S. Navy and is actively expanding into
multi-domain autonomous systems, including swarming drones and simulation environments. Its long-term
ambition is to become a tightly integrated vertical company covering underwater, surface, air, and
eventually space domains.
Culture
The company runs a SpaceX-inspired culture built on a Responsible Engineer model: every engineer — from
intern to senior — owns their system end-to-end, from requirements and design through implementation,
testing, field deployment, and production. The team moves fast, works hard, and expects the urgency that
early-stage defense demands. They value builders over researchers, first-principles thinking over inherited
convention, and speed over process. Decisions are driven by physics, test data, and product outcomes.
Team
At ~7 people, the founding team brings deep expertise from SpaceX, Tesla, Archer Aviation, Vast Space,
and Castellion with an advisory network that includes the architect of a globally dominant search algorithm.
Every hire has outsized impact and early equity upside — and the team is growing fast with an unlimited
hiring budget for the right people.
What It's Like to Work Here
• Responsible Engineer model: You own your system end-to-end — requirements design,
implementation field testing and production. No organizational handoffs.
• SpaceX-inspired pace: The co-founders come from SpaceX and Tesla backgrounds. Expect intensity,
long hours when needed and rapid iteration.
• Greenfield everything: No legacy code no inherited architecture. You'll build from scratch and make
the foundational decisions.
• Hands-on engineering: You won't just sit at a desk — expect to be in the lab at the dive pool,
and on the shore monitoring ocean deployments.
About the Role
The company is looking for a Senior Autonomy Software Engineer with 5+ years of experience to own the
autonomy and perception stack for its 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. The
company needs 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 organization.
What You'll Do
• Design and implement the full autonomy stack from scratch — mission planning path planning object
detection/recognition obstacle avoidance and autonomous decision-making for underwater operations.
• Develop both ML-based and classical perception pipelines that run efficiently on power-constrained
embedded compute (Nvidia Jetson Orin AGX).
• Take the vehicle from prototype to executing real 3-day autonomous missions within your first 90 days.
• Support field testing — deploying scale models in dive pools running sea trials in the ocean and performing live telemetry debugging from shore.
• Own your system end-to-end as a Responsible Engineer: from requirements architecture through simulation field validation and production deployment.
Qualifications & Requirements Experience • 5–15 years in autonomy perception or robotics software engineering using C++ and Python • Shipped autonomy/perception software on physical autonomous vehicles UAVs or robots — production deployment on real hardware is required • Built an autonomy system from scratch (0-to-1) not just inherited a mature codebase • Worked at a fast-paced startup (e.g., Waymo Aurora Shield AI Anduril Chaos Industries or similar).
Education • BS or higher in Computer Science Robotics Electrical Engineering or a related technical field • Degree from a top-tier technical program (e.g., MIT Berkeley CMU Stanford) preferred Technical Skills • ML/deep learning for perception — object detection tracking classification • Path planning sensor fusion state estimation or classical computer vision • Experience with compute-constrained embedded platforms (e.g., Nvidia Jetson).
Mindset & Attributes • Builder not researcher — driven to deploy on real hardware not publish • Thrives in high-urgency early-stage environments with rapid iteration • Fully comfortable working on defense weapons systems.