Staff Autonomy Engineer

Location: San Francisco, CA, us

Company Description

At AeroVect, we provide autonomous driving solutions to some of the busiest airports and logistics hubs in the world. Backed by top-tier investors, AeroVect is shaping the future of structured autonomy, beginning with self-driving tow tractors.

If you have a passion for applying autonomous driving technologies to impact the flow of goods for millions of people, we want to talk to you!

Job Description

We are looking for a Staff Engineer who knows how to bring world-class system design to autonomous driving systems in structured, low-speed environments. In this role, you'll lead, manage and scale our core autonomy software team at a fast-paced, early-stage startup. Leveraging your experience building production-grade systems, you’ll propel the AeroVect Driver to the next level, achieving category-defining vehicle autonomy for the airport operational design domain.

Your scope will include leading the system design and implementation of key improvements to critical modules that include planning, prediction, perception, localization, and controls, incorporating both cutting-edge techniques as well as proven, off-the-shelf approaches to support all autonomous driving and towing functions, creating unprecedented value and functionality for the modern supply chain. 

The opportunity offers a technical, hands-on team leader the chance to help develop a market-defining enterprise product that combines autonomous vehicle technology with a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) business model. This role reports directly to our co-founders.

What You’ll Do

• Define, lead, and own the hands-on development of an autonomous driving stack for structured logistics environments, targeting milestones, growing the team, and working with internal/external partners — expect to spend 70% of your time performing hands-on development, with the remaining 30% defining requirements, directing schedule, removing obstacles, designing/coaching the team to hit aggressive milestones, and building a team of world-class engineers.

• Lead a team of engineers bringing up all components necessary for reliable autonomous driving in the airside environment, including vehicle corridors and the apron.

• Design, implement, test, and support all aspects of ground vehicle autonomy, including planning, prediction, perception, localization, controls, and infrastructure subsystems

• Qualify all subsystems using objective measures, with an eye to functional safety and systems engineering best practices

• Collaborate with vehicle engineering to create an integrated system, including sensor/compute selection and integration

• Understand and keep up-to-date with state of the art

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong CS fundamentals (via industry or research experience)

• Background in developing the autonomy (perception, localization, and planning) functions of a deployed, autonomous vehicle

• 5+ years high-performing engineering experience

• 2+ years experience leading robotics software engineering teams

• Industrial automation experience shipping safety-critical software

• Experience shipping a working robotics or vehicle autonomy system

• Candidates with unconventional experiences especially encouraged

• Willingness to get hands-on and have lots of fun

Ideal Qualifications

• PhD / advanced research or industry experience in vehicle autonomy or robotics

• Background in safety-critical software/system development (preferably a ground robotics functional safety standard such as ISO 26262 or IEC 61508)

• Prior experience developing and supporting all aspects of autonomy for a production ground-vehicle system, or research prototype (end-to-end, full lifecycle development preferred)

• Startup experience in an engineering leadership role

• Experience with ROS

Additional Information

AeroVect is a technology company that applies the latest advances in autonomous driving systems to create today the logistics centers and air cargo operations of the future. We work with major hubs around the world to bring self-driving tow tractors to life.

Our team of engineers and industry application specialists have collectively spent decades developing cutting-edge autonomy and aerospace technologies. Founded on the principles of safety, efficiency, and reliability, our mission is to deliver customer-first autonomy solutions that make logistics work for millions of people while having lots of fun on the way. Read more on our website at www.aerovect.com .

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We’re committed to growing and empowering a more inclusive community within our company, industry, and cities. That’s why we hire and cultivate diverse teams of the best and brightest from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We believe that true innovation happens when everyone has room at the table and the tools, resources, and opportunity to excel.