Perception Systems Engineer
About this role
Autonomous aircraft require reliable perception to interpret their surroundings and execute complex missions in coordination with ground forces. Anduril Industries seeks a Systems Engineer to support perception system development for the Air Maneuver, Enabling Technology team in Costa Mesa, California.
This role centers on the sensing suite, defining baseline sensors, detection requirements, range parameters, and operational conditions while ensuring evidence transitions smoothly to receiving programs. The ideal candidate brings deep technical judgment in sensing systems, a strong grasp of detection physics, and the capability to lead complex engineering trades across multiple concurrent efforts.
What you will do
- Drive the perception system architecture and requirements baseline by decomposing mission needs into detection, range, field of regard, latency, and availability specifications.
- Own the sensor suite baseline and its configuration across platforms, including modality selection, part numbers, physical placement, and interface definitions.
- Set and defend the sensing performance model through radiometry, detector performance, and reconciliation against measured flight test results.
- Drive the verification and validation strategy for perception via verification plans, hardware-in-the-loop coverage, sensor characterization, and flight test objectives.
- Provide technical authority at design and gate reviews by evaluating whether perception evidence is sufficient and coverage is complete.
- Lead sensor trades to resolve forks by framing decisions, defining criteria, running analyses, and documenting results.
- Drive modularity and reuse so that perception ports successfully across platforms with stable interfaces and sensor abstraction.
- Instrument flight tests, participate at the aircraft level, and drive the analysis loop from collected data back into requirements and architecture.
What you need
- Hold a B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Optics, Physics, Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or a similar field, or possess equivalent experience.
- Bring 5+ years of engineering experience on electro-optical, LiDAR, RADAR, or comparable sensing systems, including time as the technical owner through to fielded or flight-demonstrated performance.
- Demonstrate depth in multi-modal sensor architecture and sensor selection with a working command of detection physics.
- Show demonstrated experience owning system architecture and interface definition for a sensing system, including interfaces to compute, autonomy consumers, and vehicles.
- Possess the ability to exercise extremely high ownership over a complex system across design, integration, test, and flight test.
- Exhibit demonstrated experience specifying and verifying sensing performance quantitatively, including detection and false alarm characterization.
- Maintain a working command of electro-optical, LiDAR, and/or RADAR system engineering fundamentals such as radiometry, link budgets, detector selection, and noise metrics.
- Demonstrate experience with systems engineering rigor including requirements management, traceability to verification, ICDs, and technical performance measures.
Nice to have
- Experience with learned perception in a safety relevant system, including evaluation gates, dataset and labeling strategy, and model performance arguments.
- Experience with embedded compute and SWaP-C budgeting for airborne perception, including end-to-end latency budgets.
- Experience with environmental qualification of airborne sensors, such as MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-461, and with airworthiness or certification evidence.
- Experience transitioning a capability out of development and into a delivery program or product line, including evidence handoffs.
- Participation in a standards or industry body relevant to airborne sensing or airspace integration, such as RTCA or SAE committee work.
Benefits
- Highly competitive equity grants included in the majority of full-time offers
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the compensation range for this role?
The salary range for this role is $146,000 to $220,000 USD based on base salary only. Highly competitive equity grants are also included in the majority of full-time offers.
Where is the position located?
The position is located in Costa Mesa, California, United States. It involves hands-on work including instrumenting flight tests and being present at the aircraft.
What security clearance is required?
Candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a US Top Secret security clearance. This is a requirement for working on these defense technology systems.
What kind of team will this person join?
You will support perception system development for the Air Maneuver, Enabling Technology team at Anduril. The team develops aerial robotic systems designed to operate in large coordinated teams alongside ground maneuver forces.
The application is on the official Anduril Industries careers page.
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