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Head of Autonomy

El Segundo, California, United States

Who we are

Neros is transforming a defense industry mired in costly, behemoth machinery—to circumvent a looming vulnerability gap, to give dismounted soldiers a fighting chance against tanks, and ultimately, to get as many humans off the battlefield as possible.

While consumer technology is evolving by bounds on the smaller-cheaper-better path, U.S. defense technology wallows in the large, centralized, and wildly expensive paradigm. Our air, land, and sea machinery budget is staggering; yet these large assets can still be vulnerable to very small weapons. When swarm technology comes into its own, the asymmetry will escalate. Nowhere is the pattern more glaring than in small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS)—drones. 

What you will be doing

As an early Neros employee, you will get to help decide the direction of our future. We are looking for someone who can drive the development, design, and testing of our systems. You will be responsible for the full-stack systems and roadmap in implementing autonomy into our core product. You will amplify the effectiveness of Neros drone pilots by multiple orders of magnitude. You will own team building, execution, and launching systems that will be produced in millions.

You should have the following

  • 6+ years of industry experience, ideally in a fast-paced, high-volume startup
  • Experience defining the scope of autonomy products and working across teams through production
  • You have owned the build-out of past teams and run the hiring process with support from a recruiting org
  • Hardware constrained autonomy deployment
  • Understands how to test new approaches to controls on actual robots / drones
  • Test and validate state estimation solutions in both simulated and real-world environments.
  • Significant experience leading cross-discipline software engineering teams
  • Significant experience building embedded software for autonomous systems
  • Strong ability to synthesize customer objectives into engineering outcomes.
  • Have experience across controls engineering, state estimation, vision, etc.
  • Experience with non-linear controls, or motion planning
  • Previous ownership of sensor fusion for IMUs, GPS, cameras, and other onboard sensors.
  • Experience leading product roadmap across multiple systems

Nice to have

  • Knowledge of FPV drones
  • MS/PhD in Computer Science or a related field or equivalent experience
  • Strong knowledge of sensor fusion techniques (e.g., Kalman filters, EKF, particle filters).
  • Experience with simulation tools 

US Salary Range

$100,000 - $400,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Neros' total compensation package.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. We welcome all applicants without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

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