Detect And Avoid Lead

Joby Aviation•Santa Cruz, CA

1d•$164,900 - $245,000

About The Position

Joby Flight Research designs, develops, and flight-tests novel aircraft using a software-first autonomy approach. We build and deploy autonomy, perception, planning, and radar systems across conventional, electric, and hydrogen-electric aircraft in both CTOL and VTOL configurations. We're building autonomous aircraft, and safely sharing the airspace is non-negotiable. Detect and Avoid (DAA) is how our aircraft sense other traffic — cooperative and non-cooperative — and maneuver to stay well clear and avoid collisions without a pilot in the loop.This is not a single solution for a single aircraft. We operate multiple aircraft types with different missions and performance envelopes, and they won't all solve DAA the same way: some will carry DAA onboard, some will rely on ground-based DAA, and some will use a mix of both. A core enabler across the portfolio is a radar we are designing and building in-house, developed by our dedicated radar team.As the DAA Lead, you own the DAA capability across that portfolio — from architecture and sensor strategy, through requirements and certification basis, to the roadmap that gets it flying. You are also the product voice into the radar program, defining what the radar must detect, at what performance, and how we'll prove it. You sit at the intersection of the radar team, autonomy/GNC, systems engineering, safety, flight test, and regulators, and you're accountable for turning a hard technical and regulatory problem into a shipped, certifiable product.

Requirements

7+ years in aerospace, autonomy, robotics, sensors, or a closely related field, with significant ownership of a complex safety-critical system.
Bachelor's Degree or advanced degree in related field.
Deep, hands-on understanding of detect-and-avoid / sense-and-avoid: sensors, tracking and sensor fusion, collision avoidance logic, and the "well clear" concept.
Experience reasoning across different system architectures (e.g., onboard vs. ground-based vs. distributed) and making principled trade-offs between them.
Ability to specify and evaluate a radar (or comparable sensor) as a product owner — you can reason about detection performance, RCS, clutter, false-alarm rates, and what it takes to test those claims, and hold a hardware team to clear requirements.
Demonstrated ability to lead across disciplines and own a capability end to end — not just contribute to it.
Working knowledge of airspace operations, separation/right-of-way rules, and the relevant DAA standards (DO-365, ASTM F3442, etc.).
Strong systems-engineering instincts: requirements, interfaces, V&V, and trade studies.
Excellent written and verbal communication — you can brief executives, write a requirement, and defend an argument to the FAA in the same week.
This position must meet US export control compliance requirements, therefore a candidate must qualify as a “US Person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15. “US Person” includes US Citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, or asylees.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience defining requirements for, integrating, or testing radar systems for aircraft or autonomous vehicles.
Experience with ground-based surveillance, ATC/UTM, or distributed sensing architectures.
Experience taking an aircraft system through a certification or approval process (Part 23/25, UAS, or BVLOS waivers/exemptions).
Background in perception or GNC for aircraft or autonomous vehicles.
Familiarity with encounter modeling and risk-ratio / safety-metric analysis (e.g., ACAS X evaluation frameworks).
Prior product owner / product management experience in a hardware + software environment.
Flight test experience.

Responsibilities

Own DAA as a portfolio, not a point solution — define a coherent strategy across multiple aircraft types with different missions, performance envelopes, and operating environments, rather than a single design for a single platform.
Architect across onboard, ground-based, and hybrid DAA — determine which aircraft carry the sensing and avoidance function onboard, which rely on ground-based surveillance and a remote/automated
Drive commonality and reuse where it pays off — define shared requirements, interfaces, and a common DAA core (tracking, threat assessment, well-clear logic) that deploys across platforms and architectures, while allowing each aircraft to diverge where its mission demands.
Set per-architecture certification and safety strategies — recognize that onboard, ground-based, and mixed DAA carry different means of compliance, failure modes, and safety arguments, and own a means-of-compliance approach for each.
Own the DAA product vision and roadmap — define what we build, in what order, and why, balancing safety, certification timeline, cost, and aircraft performance.
Drive radar requirements across deployment modes — translate DAA-level needs (detection range, field of regard, update rate, track accuracy, target RCS, false-alarm/missed-detection budgets) into clear, testable requirements for the in-house radar team, covering both airborne installations and ground-based surveillance roles, and own those requirements as they evolve.
Partner closely with the radar team on test and validation — define the radar's acceptance criteria, shape ground and flight test campaigns, encounter geometries, and target sets, and adjudicate performance against DAA needs.
Lead the broader DAA technical strategy across the full sensing stack (radar plus ADS-B, transponders, EO/IR, acoustic, and fusion) and the avoidance logic (tracking, threat assessment, well-clear definition, maneuver guidance).
Translate regulatory and standards requirements into engineering requirements — work fluently against frameworks like RTCA DO-365 / DO-366, ASTM F3442 / F3322, SC-228, and the relevant FAA/EASA certification basis for each aircraft class.
Be the cross-functional connective tissue between the radar team, perception, GNC, systems engineering, safety/SSA, flight test, and regulatory affairs.
Define and prioritize the backlog — write clear requirements and acceptance criteria, manage trade-offs, and make the call on scope when reality pushes back.
Drive verification & validation — own how we prove the system works across architectures: simulation, encounter modeling, Monte Carlo / fast-time analysis, HITL, and flight test.
Engage directly with regulators and standards bodies to build and defend the means of compliance.
Manage risk — maintain the DAA hazard picture for each platform and feed it into the aircraft-level safety case.