Sr. Machine Learning Engineer, Autonomy

About the role

Reporting to the Head of Mission Systems and Software, the Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Autonomy owns the technical development and delivery of machine learning and autonomy capabilities for Heven AeroTech uncrewed aircraft systems. The role requires an experienced engineer who can turn mission and operational needs into software requirements, architecture, implementation, and demonstrated aircraft capability. The role covers perception, tracking, sensor fusion, mission-level decision making, planning, and integration with flight-control, mission-system, onboard-compute, and payload interfaces. This engineer leads assigned autonomy efforts from initial design through simulation, integration, ground test, and flight test, with responsibility for technical decisions, software quality, performance, and resolving issues across system interfaces. This is a hands-on senior individual contributor position with technical leadership and mentorship responsibilities. The engineer provides guidance to junior and mid-level Machine Learning Engineers through design and code reviews, troubleshooting, and shared development and testing work. The role does not include direct personnel management responsibilities and works closely with Platform Engineers, Flight Test, and aircraft engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical execution of assigned autonomy capabilities, including requirements development, architecture, implementation, integration, verification, and delivery.
• Translate mission needs into defined autonomous behaviors, operating constraints, measurable performance requirements, and test acceptance criteria.
• Make and document technical tradeoffs across machine learning, deterministic logic, state machines, behavior trees