Autonomy Engineer III – Ground Systems

Turning Space into a Transportation Layer for Earth

Who We Are:

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominant transportation mode—horse-drawn chariots, ocean-going vessels, or aircraft. These advances were driven by small, focused teams pushing the boundaries of access and mobility. We’re building on that legacy by developing a global transportation infrastructure that spans from orbit to Earth. Our reentry vehicles deliver precision landing capabilities and redefine how space connects to everyday logistics.

To support this mission, we are developing a ground-based autonomy system that interprets mission goals, transforms intent into actionable behaviors, and orchestrates safe and effective vehicle operations. This system operates outside the vehicle, managing mission logic, simulation environments, validation workflows, and backend services that interface with all other autonomy layers.

What You’ll Do:

As an Autonomy Engineer for Ground Systems, you will build the infrastructure and logic that transforms high-level mission descriptions into executable, validated, and testable mission objects. Your systems will be responsible for decomposing goals into discrete actions, ensuring each step is aligned with safety, operational constraints, and vehicle capabilities. You’ll develop software pipelines that support modification, reordering, and validation of mission plans, while integrating tightly with simulation tools, operator interfaces, and onboard autonomy systems.

Responsibilities:

• Build systems that convert high-level mission descriptions into structured, ordered sequences of executable actions.
• Design backend infrastructure to store, manipulate, and validate mission objects throughout the mission lifecycle.
• Develop tooling to allow operators, mission designers, and test teams to interactively modify and inspect mission logic.
• Collaborate across autonomy, GNC, flight software, and ground systems to ensure mission plans are valid, executable, and testable.
• Integrate with simulation environments to enable pre-flight validation and end-to-end mission rehearsal workflows.
• Implement error handling, configuration enforcement, and constraints-checking logic that improves safety and reliability.
• Contribute to reusable autonomy frameworks that support multiple mission types, vehicles, and ground configurations.
• Document design patterns and system behaviors for clear internal understanding and auditability.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field such as Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience developing software for autonomy, mission planning, robotics, or distributed systems.
• Experience designing and implementing backend services that process, modify, and validate structured data or commands.
• Proficiency in Python, C++, or Rust in Linux environments.
• Demonstrated ability to work across system boundaries—linking planning logic, simulation, operators, and autonomy frameworks.
• Strong communication skills with a focus on clarity, early collaboration, and respectful engagement.
• Ability to produce professional documentation and clear diagrams that support interdisciplinary engineering efforts.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience building autonomy or mission planning tools for spacecraft, autonomous aircraft, robotics platforms, or simulation-heavy systems.
• Familiarity with mission description languages, task graphs, behavior trees, or goal-action systems.
• Knowledge of simulation-in-the-loop (SITL) or hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) integration workflows.
• Experience working with DDS, ROS, or other middleware in distributed autonomy systems.
• Exposure to regulatory or safety-critical development environments.
• Contributions to open-source tools, research, startups, or non-traditional engineering paths.

Why Join Us:

• Define and build the infrastructure that turns mission intent into real-world action.
• Enable safe and scalable operations for the world’s first routine space-to-Earth delivery system.
• Collaborate with a high-caliber, cross-functional team in a fast-paced environment.
• Advance your skills while contributing to foundational autonomy systems at the intersection of space and software.
• Join a company that values thoughtful engineering, professional growth, and a deeply collaborative culture

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

_{The California annual base salary for this role is currently $121,000 - $142,000.  Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.}