Software Engineer, Autonomous Systems

Saildrone • Alameda, CA

1d

About The Position

Saildrone is building autonomous maritime systems that must perceive, reason about, and respond to the physical world without continuous human intervention. As a Software Engineer, Autonomous Systems, you will develop the software that turns autonomy algorithms into reliable capabilities running on real vehicles. You will work across the autonomy stack, applying strong software engineering and robotics expertise to problems such as perception, localization, planning, decision-making, and vehicle behavior. The work spans algorithm implementation, system integration, testing, and field validation, with the opportunity to work on autonomous systems operating for long periods in challenging environments far from human operators.

Requirements

• Strong C++ software engineering skills and experience building production-quality software.
• Hands-on experience developing software for autonomous systems, robotics, or other complex physical systems.
• Deep technical expertise in at least one area of autonomy, such as perception, localization, state estimation, planning, navigation, controls, or decision-making.
• Strong understanding of the algorithms and engineering tradeoffs relevant to autonomous systems.
• Experience integrating algorithms into larger software systems and debugging behavior using real-world data.
• Ability to reason about system behavior, performance, and reliability rather than treating algorithms as isolated components.
• Experience developing and validating software that ultimately runs on real hardware.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with autonomous vehicles, aerospace, defense, maritime systems, or other safety- or mission-critical applications.
• Experience with real-time or resource-constrained systems.
• Experience taking autonomy software through simulation, hardware integration, and field testing.
• Experience with Python for analysis, experimentation, or tooling.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and deploy production autonomy software in C++.
• Develop and integrate algorithms for autonomous perception, localization, planning, navigation, decision-making, or vehicle behavior.
• Evaluate algorithmic approaches and make practical tradeoffs among accuracy, robustness, computational cost, latency, and reliability.
• Integrate autonomy software with sensors, vehicle systems, and other components of the autonomous system.
• Use simulation, testing, telemetry, and real-world vehicle data to validate behavior and diagnose failures.
• Improve the robustness and performance of autonomous capabilities as they move from development into fielded systems.
• Contribute to the architecture and evolution of Saildrone's next-generation autonomy stack.

Benefits

• Competitive Paid Time Off (PTO) accrual plus a robust annual holiday schedule and paid sick leave
• Premium, multi-tier Medical, Dental, and Vision plans with significant company contributions for employees and dependents
• Equity grants
• 401(k) retirement plan with flexible pre-tax and Roth payroll contribution options
• Annual professional development reimbursement program
• Relocation assistance for eligible roles

What This Job Offers

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