Autonomy Systems Lead Engineer

Wild West Systems•Great Neck Plaza, NY

22h•Onsite

About The Position

Autonomy Systems Lead Engineer Wild West Systems is an American defense technology company with the mission to equip the civilized world with superior and affordable arms and advanced technologies – to dominate the battlefield of present and future threats, in a new era of asymmetrical warfare. We fuse versatile domain experience with novel approach and creativity to change the paradigm of defense – both for military arenas and civilian soft targets. We're an early stage startup, rapidly moving and growing. General Qualifications Love for America and passion for Wild West System's mission. Self-starter, capable of performing tasks as an individual as well as working well in a team. Servant-leader mentality, extreme ownership, willing to participate in different and rapidly changing projects in a dynamic environment. Bias for action. ITAR REQUIREMENT: To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here. Position Overview We are seeking an Autonomy Systems Lead Engineer to architect and integrate the full autonomy stack – from perception through planning and control. This is a high-impact role focused on building robust, modular, production-ready autonomous systems that operate reliably on constrained edge hardware in dynamic environments. This is not a research-only role. You will be responsible for taking systems from concept → prototype → field deployment, leading integration across hardware, software, and real-world testing.

Requirements

Strong experience building end-to-end robotic or autonomous systems
Experience with ROS2, ArduPilot, PX4, or similar frameworks
Deep understanding of real-time systems and system tradeoffs
Experience debugging across hardware/software boundaries
Strong C++ (or Rust) systems programming skills

Nice To Haves

Experience with distributed systems or onboard/offboard architectures
Experience with video streaming (RTP, GStreamer)
Experience with embedded Linux and edge compute platforms
Experience in rapid prototyping environments

Responsibilities

Architect and integrate the full autonomy stack (perception → planning → control)
Define interfaces between sensors, compute, and flight systems
Build robust, modular, production-ready autonomy systems
Optimize system-level performance (latency, bandwidth, compute)
Lead integration across hardware, software, and networking