Principal Software Engineer, Perception

About the Role

Join the perception team at a maritime autonomy company, where you will set technical direction for the systems that help autonomous vehicles interpret complex ocean environments. This principal-level role combines architecture leadership with hands-on engineering, translating advanced algorithms into reliable capabilities on edge hardware.

What You'll Do

• Define architecture and technical direction across sensor fusion, localization, tracking, mapping, and uncertainty estimation.
• Integrate radar, cameras, and other sensor modalities into dependable information streams for downstream autonomy.
• Work with autonomy, navigation, and applied machine learning teams to support safe vehicle behavior in challenging ocean conditions.
• Turn research-grade algorithms into production systems that meet compute, latency, sensor, and environmental constraints.
• Lead architecture decisions, technical reviews, and hands-on problem solving while mentoring senior and staff engineers.
• Guide data labeling, ground-truth dataset development, and evaluation frameworks.
• Contribute technical leadership to team growth, hiring, and mentorship.

What We're Looking For

• At least 8 years of experience in perception or robotics engineering, with staff-level technical leadership or equivalent experience.
• A track record building and deploying production perception systems on autonomous vehicles or robots, with ownership of areas such as sensor fusion, localization, or estimation.
• Deep knowledge of robotics or autonomous systems, including probabilistic estimation, state estimation, tracking, mapping, and computer vision.
• Strong mathematical and algorithmic foundations, with experience in C++, Python, machine learning, and uncertainty modeling.
• Experience with onboard software and inference on constrained edge compute, including latency-sensitive workloads. Familiarity with NVIDIA Jetson, radar, or camera systems is valuable.
• Maritime, aerospace, or defense autonomy experience and an advanced degree are helpful.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Visa sponsorship or transfer is not available.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $300,000 to $380,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

Hybrid role based in Alameda, California, with three days per week in the office.