Autonomy Engineer

Booz Allen Hamilton • Honolulu, HI

1d • $99,000 - $225,000

About The Position

As an Autonomy and UAS Engineer, you will design, develop, and deploy machine learning models that power intelligent behaviors on unmanned aircraft systems. You will work with advanced autonomy frameworks, including platforms such as Shield AI’s Hivemind to build resilient navigation, perception, targeting, and collaborative autonomy capabilities for the Department of Defense. You will operate at the cutting edge of edge AI, computer vision, reinforcement learning, and real-time embedded systems, helping the military transition from human-in-the-loop control to AI-assisted and autonomous mission execution.

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in software engineering, including AI/ML systems
• Experience with Python and C++
• Experience with deep learning frameworks, such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and ONNX
• Experience building and deploying AI models on edge hardware, such as NVIDIA Jetson, GPUs, and embedded platforms
• Experience with robotics middleware, such as ROS or ROS2
• Experience with computer vision or autonomous navigation systems
• Secret clearance
• Bachelor's degree

Nice To Haves

• Experience working in military exercises and war games
• Ability to support flight testing and operational evaluations
• Master’s degree
• ML, AI, or Solution Architecture Certification

Responsibilities

• Design and train machine learning models for perception, object detection, tracking, and classification.
• Develop reinforcement learning and autonomy algorithms for navigation and mission execution.
• Implement sensor fusion models combining EO/IR, LiDAR, GPS-denied navigation, and telemetry data.
• Optimize AI models for deployment on edge compute platforms such as GPU, TPU, and embedded systems.
• Develop and integrate autonomy behaviors within platforms such as Hivemind.
• Implement mission planning logic and adaptive decision-making algorithms.
• Enable collaborative autonomy between multiple UAS platforms.
• Build simulation-based training pipelines for autonomy validation.
• Deploy containerized AI models to airborne and ground edge nodes.
• Optimize inference latency and resource utilization.
• Conduct hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing.
• Develop secure software pipelines aligned to DoD cybersecurity standards.
• Integrate AI outputs into tactical networks and mission command systems.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines for rapid model iteration and field updates.

Benefits

• health, life, disability, financial, and retirement benefits, as well as paid leave, professional development, tuition assistance, work-life programs, and dependent care.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees