Manager, Autonomy Evaluation, Data & Test
About this role
Neros Technologies needs a technical leader to solve the challenge of measuring and verifying drone autonomy performance in environments where GPS and communications are unavailable. The Autonomy Evaluation, Data and Test team owns the infrastructure required to evaluate software changes, process flight logs, operate hardware-in-the-loop benches, and execute field tests. This manager will define release criteria, establish performance metrics, and build the systems that generate evidence for whether autonomy software is cleared to fly.
The incoming leader will direct engineering across software infrastructure, data engineering, simulation, and physical testing while personally shaping the regression and data platforms. Candidates who thrive in this environment possess a strong background in robotics or aerospace evaluation, demonstrate comfort managing multidisciplinary teams, and want to accelerate the deployment of defense technology.
What you will do
- Define the release criteria and regression gates that determine whether autonomy software builds are cleared for flight or blocked.
- Establish organizational performance metrics for autonomy and publish reliability and coverage reporting for company leadership.
- Build and operate a multi-tier regression system that covers unit tests, open-loop replay, closed-loop simulation, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
- Manage the end-to-end autonomy data platform, handling on-vehicle data capture, ingestion, log cataloging, and deterministic replay.
- Direct field test operations, autonomy payload integration, and flight-readiness execution.
- Hire, guide, and develop a multidisciplinary team of engineers spanning software infrastructure, data engineering, simulation, and physical testing.
What you need
- Eight or more years of engineering experience within robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, or defense autonomy.
- At least three years of experience managing engineering teams.
- Direct background leading evaluation, validation, metrics, or test infrastructure functions for physical autonomous systems.
- Demonstrated history of defining performance metrics and release gating decisions for autonomy or machine learning systems.
- Hands-on development experience building automated regression and CI infrastructure in Python and C++ for robotics or autonomy software.
- Familiarity with large-scale log and sensor data infrastructure, including multi-terabyte ingestion and deterministic replay.
- Working knowledge of closed-loop simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and real-time latency budgets on embedded compute.
- A Bachelor of Science or Master of Science in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
Nice to have
- Experience building evaluation, simulation, or data infrastructure from the ground up at a robotics, drone, or autonomous vehicle company.
- Experience with machine learning data pipelines, dataset versioning, labeling operations, and automated model evaluation.
- Experience supporting or leading flight test and range operations, including test article turnaround and flight-readiness reviews.
- Background in guidance, navigation and control, multi-target tracking, sensor fusion, or electro-optical and infrared perception.
Benefits
- Highly competitive equity grants included as part of the total compensation package
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the salary range for this position?
The salary range for this role is estimated between $191,500 and $268,000 USD in base salary, depending on work experience, education, training, critical skills, and business considerations.
What programming languages are used in this role?
Hands-on experience building automated regression and CI infrastructure is required specifically in Python and C++.
Where is the job located?
The position is located in Torrance, California, United States.
The application is on the official Neros Technologies careers page.
Apply on company site