Maritime Autonomy Engineer

Booz Allen Hamilton•San Diego, CA

1d•$77,600 - $176,000•Remote

About The Position

We are an autonomy-focused engineering team operating at the intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, and the maritime domain. Our mission is to design, develop, and deploy intelligent autonomous systems that operate in complex, contested, and unstructured ocean environments. We develop perception, planning, and control solutions for unmanned surface vessels (USVs), unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and multi-agent maritime platforms enabling advanced autonomy capabilities that address real-world operational challenges at sea. Our work spans the full autonomy stack, from sensor fusion and state estimation to mission planning, decision-making, and human-machine teaming, all with a rigorous focus on safety, reliability, and performance in dynamic maritime conditions. The role will contribute to the design and implementation of autonomous behaviors for maritime robotic systems. They will work within a multidisciplinary team to develop and validate software modules across the perception, planning, and control stack translating operational requirements into deployable autonomy solutions. They will participate in the full software development lifecycle, from architecture and prototyping through integration, field testing, and iterative refinement, while collaborating closely with systems engineers, hardware leads, and mission stakeholders.

Requirements

3+ years of experience with robotics or systems engineering for equipment hardware, including circuits or sensors
Experience with Robot Operating Systems such as ROS or ROS 2 for sensor integration, communication, and system orchestration
Experience with C++ or Python for embedded Linux systems, robotics, and real-time systems development
Experience with perception techniques such as sensor fusion, object detection, or environmental mapping such as SLAM, LiDAR, or camera, sonar
Knowledge of autonomous systems concepts including state estimation, localization, path planning, and feedback control
Ability to obtain a Secret clearance
Bachelor’s degree in CS, EE, Computer Engineering, or Robotics Engineering

Nice To Haves

Experience developing architectures and algorithms for multi-agent, distributed collaborative autonomy
Experience with Git-based version control, branch or tag strategies, Docker image development, and container deployment
Experience with multi-agent coordination, swarm behaviors, or collaborative autonomy frameworks
Experience with simulation environments such as Gazebo, Isaac Sim, or marine-specific simulators such as VRX or UUV Simulator
Experience with mission planning frameworks, behavior trees, or finite state machines for autonomous task execution
Experience with maritime robotic platforms including unmanned surface vessels (USVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs)
Knowledge of military strategy, operations, and tactics and maritime-specific sensing modalities such as acoustic sonar, radar, GPS, INS, and Doppler Velocity Log (DVL)
Ability to develop strategy for internal research and development efforts to support reaching specific business goals
Ability to professionally interact with clients to understand their needs, recommend courses of action, and present or demonstrate results
Master’s degree in CS or Engineering preferred; Doctorate degree in CS or Engineering a plus

Responsibilities

Contribute to the design and implementation of autonomous behaviors for maritime robotic systems.
Work within a multidisciplinary team to develop and validate software modules across the perception, planning, and control stack.
Translate operational requirements into deployable autonomy solutions.
Participate in the full software development lifecycle, from architecture and prototyping through integration, field testing, and iterative refinement.
Collaborate closely with systems engineers, hardware leads, and mission stakeholders.
Provide algorithms and software support for mobile robot sensing, perception, localization, navigation, and behaviors in aerial or ground domains.
Effectively communicate complex technical topics to a variety of audiences in written and verbal formats.
Use ROS for the development of custom messages, nodes, packages, or stacks.
Provide software maintenance and deployment, including version control, CI/CD, packaging, containerization, and documentation.