Sr. Software Engineer, Perception

RED CAT HOLDINGS•Torrance, CA

3d•$132,000 - $183,000•Onsite

About The Position

FlightWave Aerospace, a subsidiary of Red Cat Holdings, is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead the development of perception systems powering the next generation of autonomous VTOL unmanned aircraft. This role sits at the intersection of research and production—translating cutting-edge academic literature into robust, deployable systems. You will experiment with next-generation sensors and push the boundaries of perception to enable reliable autonomy in contested and dynamic environments. The Senior Software Engineer will be responsible for designing, prototyping, and productionizing perception systems that are both resilient and rigorously testable. This includes building capabilities such as visual-inertial odometry (VIO) for GPS-denied navigation, object detection and classification for situational awareness, multi-object tracking for dynamic environments, and sensor fusion across modalities (e.g., cameras, IMUs, thermal sensors, and event-based cameras) to achieve robust state estimation and scene understanding under real-world constraints. FlightWave develops advanced unmanned aircraft systems for defense, public safety, and government security applications. Our platforms integrate high-performance edge compute with sophisticated robotics software to deliver autonomous mission execution in the most demanding environments.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field
5+ years of professional experience developing perception, robotics, or autonomy systems
Demonstrated experience taking perception systems from research or prototype to production deployment in real-world environments
Strong foundation in computer vision, state estimation, and sensor fusion, with hands-on experience implementing systems such as visual-inertial odometry (VIO), SLAM, object detection, and multi-object tracking
Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Python, with experience building real-time, performance-critical systems
Experience working with multi-sensor systems (e.g., cameras, IMUs, thermal sensors), including calibration, synchronization, and data fusion
Experience developing software tightly integrated with hardware systems, particularly in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or unmanned aircraft systems
Experience working with perception and robotics frameworks (e.g., ROS 2, OpenCV, GStreamer)
Strong understanding of coordinate frames, reference transformations, and spatial reasoning across sensor, body, and world frames

Nice To Haves

Experience with robotics or autonomous systems software stacks (PX4, ROS2, MAVLink, etc.)
Experience developing software for unmanned aircraft systems or aerospace platforms
Familiarity with edge computing platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson or Qualcomm systems
Experience with event-based cameras or other advanced sensing modalities
Background in GPS-denied navigation, low-light perception, or contested environments
Experience building or using simulation, replay, or evaluation pipelines for perception validation

Responsibilities

Perception Leadership & System Architecture Own the architecture and development of FlightWave’s perception stack, spanning sensing, state estimation, and scene understanding for autonomous VTOL systems
Lead the design and implementation of core perception capabilities, including visual-inertial odometry (VIO) for GPS-denied navigation, object detection and classification, multi-object tracking, and multi-sensor fusion across cameras, IMUs, thermal payloads, and emerging sensor modalities
Translate state-of-the-art research into production-ready systems, balancing performance, reliability, and computational constraints on edge hardware
Define perception system interfaces across autonomy, controls, and flight software to enable robust downstream decision-making
Drive architectural decisions around real-time processing, synchronization, and data pipelines for high-rate sensor streams
Perception Systems Development & Validation Design and build perception systems that are robust to real-world challenges including low-light conditions, high dynamics, environmental noise, and adversarial or contested environments
Develop and maintain datasets, evaluation pipelines, and simulation environments to rigorously test perception performance across edge cases
Establish metrics and validation frameworks for perception accuracy, latency, and robustness across flight regimes
Lead efforts in flight test integration, debugging, and performance tuning of perception systems in real-world conditions
Collaborate closely with hardware teams to evaluate and integrate next-generation sensors.
Organizational Development & Technical Mentorship Help scale FlightWave’s perception and autonomy engineering capabilities as the company grows
Contribute to hiring and development of engineers with expertise in computer vision, state estimation, and sensor fusion
Promote engineering best practices for building reliable, testable, and maintainable perception systems
Program Execution Partner with autonomy, controls, and systems engineering teams to deliver perception capabilities aligned with mission requirements
Ensure perception systems support rapid iteration during flight testing while maintaining production-level reliability
Contribute to development workflows, testing strategies, and deployment pipelines that support both research experimentation and operational deployment
External Collaboration & Integration Work with external partners, research institutions, and vendors to evaluate and integrate third-party perception technologies where appropriate
Ensure externally developed perception components align with internal architecture, performance standards, and mission requirements
Coordinate integration of external and internal systems to accelerate development while maintaining system integrity