Perception Engineer

About the role

The Company Saildrone is a maritime defense company and the global leader in autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). With more ocean miles and real-world operational experience than any USV manufacturer or operator, Saildrone maintains active, combat-deployed systems supporting national security and force projection around the world, 24/7/365. Saildrone’s manufacturing and R&D headquarters are located in Alameda, CA, with business development and sales operations in Washington, DC, and deployment hubs in Europe and the Middle East. By combining proven autonomous operations, edge computing, advanced sensing, renewable power, and the most advanced and robust unmanned surface technology on the planet, Saildrone is shaping how the Navy of the future operates. Join a fast-moving, mission-driven team at the forefront of maritime security and autonomous innovation. Saildrone's autonomous vehicles rely on perception systems to understand their surroundings and estimate their position and motion. As a Perception Engineer, you will develop and deploy the perception and estimation capabilities that turn raw sensor data into rich, accurate inputs that power downstream autonomy and product capabilities. You will work across perception algorithms, sensor fusion, production C++, and real-world vehicle testing.

Responsibilities

• Develop perception, localization, state-estimation, multi object tracking, and sensor-fusion algorithms for autonomous vehicles.
• Process camera, radar, and similar sensor data to produce reliable estimates of the vehicle and its environment.
• Implement, test, and optimize production perception software in C++.
• Analyze real-world data and vehicle behavior to diagnose failures and improve robustness.
• Integrate perception capabilities with the broader autonomy stack and validate them on real vehicles.
• Contribute to perception architecture and system design.

Qualifications

• Hands-on C++ development skills
• Experience developing perception, computer vision, localization, state estimation, sensor fusion, or related robotics systems.
• Strong understanding of robotics and the mathematics underlying perception and estimation.
• Experience working with real sensor data and physical systems.
• Experience integrating, configuring, and calibrating sensor systems.
• Experience debugging and benchmarking integrated robotics or autonomous systems.

Skills

• Experience with probabilistic state estimation