Senior Perception Software Engineer

Seasats • San Diego, CA

2d • $180,000 - $250,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Seasats' vehicles operate in highly remote and often communications-limited environments. To complete persistent missions at scale, the vehicles must be able to perceive and reason about the world around them without humans in the loop. Seasats has built a reliable and increasingly intelligent autonomy stack incorporating onboard sensors and processing. In this role, you'll immerse yourself in the perception system at the heart of that stack: the algorithms that turn raw radar, camera, and other sensor data into a reliable, real-time picture of the vessel's environment. You'll take algorithms from design to deployment: evaluating sensors, building detection and tracking pipelines, optimizing for embedded hardware, and validating against real-world maritime conditions. Your work will directly determine how safely and intelligently our vessels navigate dynamic ocean environments. As a senior member of the team, you'll help set the architecture and technical direction of the perception stack and raise the bar for how perception software is designed, tested, and fielded across the company. You'll work independently on hard algorithmic problems while collaborating closely with the rest of the vehicle software team.

Requirements

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 4+ years on perception problems in fielded systems
• Deep experience processing real-time sensor data (especially camera, radar, and/or LiDAR) on embedded or compute-limited platforms
• Command of classical perception algorithms: clustering, segmentation, filtering, sensor fusion, and probabilistic tracking (e.g., Kalman or particle filters)
• Familiarity with modern computer vision models and comfort working alongside ML-based components
• Expert-level Python, with deep fluency in the scientific stack (NumPy, SciPy, OpenCV) and a track record of profiling and optimizing numerical code
• Solid grounding in 3D geometry: coordinate frames, transforms, and sensor calibration
• Proven ability to architect subsystems, lead technical efforts, and mentor engineers
• Strong technical communication skills and a team-oriented attitude
• U.S. persons, as defined by U.S. export control laws (U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and individuals granted asylee or refugee status)

Nice To Haves

• Training or fine-tuning ML models for perception tasks
• C++ for performance-critical components
• GPU or native acceleration of Python code (e.g., CUDA, CuPy, Numba)
• ROS or similar robotics middleware
• Simulation environments for robotics testing and validation
• Maritime and/or acoustic data
• Path-planning and control algorithms

Responsibilities

• Own the design and implementation of perception algorithms for detection, tracking, avoidance, and state estimation
• Integrate ML models into the perception pipeline alongside classical algorithms, and help decide which approach best fits each problem
• Optimize code for real-time execution on embedded platforms
• Build tests and expand our simulation environment to rigorously evaluate algorithms and prevent regressions
• Partner with vehicle software, UI, and operations teams to translate the vehicle's perception of its environment into intuitive, actionable displays for operators
• Lead sensor selection and evaluation, collaborating with the vehicle team on tradeoffs across performance, power, and cost
• Mentor teammates and elevate software engineering practices across the perception stack
• See your code come to life on the water as you test and tune algorithms at local launch sites

Benefits

• Stock options
• Competitive insurance (including a 99% employer-covered Gold HMO plan or other options)
• 401k matching up to 4% of salary
• Four free lunches per week
• An employee activity fund
• A pet-friendly office
• Unlimited/Flex PTO

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed