Perception Engineer

About the role

At Path Robotics, we’re tackling a trillion-dollar opportunity by solving big, hard problems in an industry facing a shortage of skilled labor. As a Perception Engineer, you will own the vision system that a real-time control loop relies on, ensuring it performs at rate on embedded hardware within a defined budget.

Responsibilities

• Develop the real-time perception pipeline end-to-end—from sensing through extraction and geometry to the output that another engineer's control loop acts on.
• Ensure robustness in environments where the signal is actively degraded, delivering reliable measurements from compromised imagery.
• Make the system’s estimates honest about their own failure, ensuring it knows when it’s wrong and communicates this early enough to prevent incorrect actions.
• Perform geometric estimation against a known model, recovering accurate positional data from partial and imperfect inputs while recognizing when the geometry doesn’t support the answer.
• Evaluate, select, and validate sensing instruments, running experiments to justify choices with quantitative data.
• Set technical direction as the perception work evolves toward learned methods.

Requirements

• Experience closing a real-time loop on camera data, where physical hardware responded to the output—with measurable rate, end-to-end latency, and a clear explanation of how it was measured.
• Deep expertise in classical vision and 3-D geometry, including camera geometry, triangulation, registration (and its failure modes), calibration, and proper error propagation.
• Experience deploying real-time segmentation or feature extraction on degraded imagery, with an understanding of why thin and low-contrast structures break standard metrics and losses.
• Proficiency in modern, production C++ and ROS 2.
• Experience with GPU-accelerated inference on embedded hardware under strict per-frame budget constraints, with a focus on measuring tail performance rather than averages.
• A defensible claim of physical accuracy, measured against an independent system, with bias and repeatability reported separately.

Benefits

• Daily free lunch to foster team connection.
• Flexible PTO to take time when needed.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• 6 weeks fully paid parental leave, plus an additional 6–8 weeks for birthing parents (12–14 weeks total).
• 401(k) retirement plan through Empower.
• Generous employee referral bonuses.

About the company

At Path Robotics, we value unique thinking and maintain a diverse, inclusive environment. We encourage collaboration and welcome all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

If you require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the hiring process, contact HR@path-robotics.com. We will respond within 48 hours to ensure equal access.