Autonomy Engineer - Perception

Department: Software Engineering

Location: Cambridge, MA

Employment Type: FullTime

About Tycho.AI

Tycho.AI is redefining the future of autonomous intelligence. Spun out of MIT and backed by DoD contracts, we are building breakthrough AI and autonomy solutions for unmanned systems operating in GPS-denied and contested environments. We are a fast-growing, dual-use technology company at the forefront of national security and commercial innovation, with a mission to push the boundaries of what autonomous systems can achieve.

Joining Tycho.AI means being part of a team shaping the next decade of autonomy from defense applications to commercial opportunities in areas like logistics, disaster response, and beyond. If you want to work at the cutting edge of AI/ML and robotics with a company that’s poised for major impact and growth, we want to hear from you.

About the Role

As an Autonomy Engineer - Perception at Tycho.AI, you will design, build, and validate perception systems for intelligent autonomous vehicles. You will collaborate with a cross-functional team of electrical, mechanical, and software experts to explore new concepts through rapid, iterative prototyping. We are seeking adaptable engineers who collaborate effectively across disciplines, brainstorm innovative ideas, and navigate through emerging embedded technologies. Most importantly, you should have a proven ability to drive a concept through the prototype phase and excel in hardware/software co-development.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain autonomy software for computer vision and autonomy tasks, including scene reconstruction, object detection, and navigation.

• Integrate systems into real-world platforms, bridging research and production.

• Stay current on research and apply state-of-the-art techniques in autonomy and perception.

Requirements

• Master’s or PhD degree in Robotics, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field; or equivalent working experience.

• Proficiency in C/C++ with experience shipping production-grade software.

• Experience building SLAM, perception, and sensor fusion systems.

• Strong foundation in both 2D (e.g., object detection, segmentation) and 3D (e.g., multi-view geometry, scene reconstruction) computer vision and perception tasks.

• Hands-on experience working with real sensor data, particularly in challenging environments, such as night, sea, or underground.

• Experience with recent developments in ML for computer vision, including ViT and other ML architectures for tasks like segmentation, object detection, classification etc.

• Comfortable developing and reasoning about multi-threaded real-time systems.

Nice to Have

• Experience working with embedded robotics platforms, such as NVIDIA Jetson.

• Experience optimizing and accelerating ML models for deployment, specifically using techniques like quantization, distillation, or architectural refinement.

• Familiarity with dense scene reconstruction, like occupancy grids, NeRF, or Gaussian splatting.

• Familiarity with perception model performance evaluation and evaluation pipelines.

Why Tycho.AI

• Be part of a rapidly scaling startup defining the future of autonomous intelligence.

• Collaborative, high-trust culture that values innovation, execution, and continuous learning.

• Make a difference, help create the software development culture and ecosystem you want to develop in.

• Competitive salary, meaningful equity, and generous benefits package.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement:

Tycho.AI is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or protected veteran status.

E-Verify and Right to Work

Tycho.AI participates in E-Verify to confirm work authorization in the United States. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. and may be subject to a government security clearance process.