Robotics Technical Leader - ROS, autonomy, perception, and machine learning

ProFound People; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Meaningful early-stage equity

Job summary

ProFound People in Sydney seeks a Robotics Technical Leader to helm the robotics stack—from ROS and autonomy to perception and ML pipelines. You will lead a small engineering team, shape architecture, and drive production-ready autonomous drone capabilities in outdoor environments.

You will own the end-to-end technical stack, coach engineers, and collaborate with the founder across field deployments and customer delivery. Expect hands-on coding and strategic leadership in a fast-moving startup.

Qualifications

• You have built something that customers have used.
• Strong autonomy and control engineering fundamentals.
• Experience with perception systems (sensor fusion, SLAM, computer vision, or similar).
• Practical experience applying machine learning in robotics contexts.
• A degree in robotics, mechatronics, or electrical/electronic engineering.
• A track record of shipping autonomous systems into production, not just research demos.
• Comfortable owning a technical domain end to end with limited oversight.

Responsibilities

• Autonomy, perception, and control layers for autonomous drone operations.
• Navigation and path planning across large, unstructured outdoor environments.
• Perception and machine learning pipelines for reliable autonomous operation during routine field inspections.
• Fleet management architecture as we scale across multiple markets.
• Onboard systems that perform under real world conditions, including variable terrain, weather, and connectivity dropouts.

Skills

Autonomy

Control engineering

Perception systems

Machine learning in robotics

Education

Degree in robotics, mechatronics, or electrical/electronic engineering

Tools

ROS

Job description

Robotics Technical Leader - ROS, autonomy, perception, and machine learning

Location: Sydney, NSW

$Generous salary on offer + ESOP

About the job

The Company We build autonomous drones for large scale outdoor operations, replacing manual and vehicle based methods with drones that navigate, monitor, and operate independently in the field.

Our team is small and highly technical, already deployed with real customers. Expect to write code at a desk and in the field, we work hands on and close to the product.

We're looking for a Robotics Technical Leader/Head of Engineering to lead technical decisions and a small engineering team across ROS, autonomy, perception, and machine learning.

The role You will build our robotics stack, from control architecture through to fleet orchestration, and lead a small team. This is the most senior technical hire on the team right now and you will coach and mentor others.

You will design the autonomy, perception, and control layers that let autonomous drones operate independently across large, unstructured outdoor environments. You will also own the systems that run routine autonomous inspections, keep hardware reliable across a wide range of environmental conditions, and ensure the whole stack, including onboard perception and ML pipelines, holds up when it's deployed far from anyone who can help debug it.

What we're looking for

Must haves:

• You have built something that customers have used
• Strong autonomy and control engineering fundamentals
• Experience with perception systems (sensor fusion, SLAM, computer vision, or similar)
• Practical experience applying machine learning in robotics contexts
• A degree in robotics, mechatronics, or electrical/electronic engineering
• A track record of shipping autonomous systems into production, not just research demos
• Comfortable owning a technical domain end to end with limited oversight

Strong advantages:

• Experience deploying robots in unstructured outdoor environments
• Exposure to drone autonomy or aerial robotics
• Prior work in deep tech or adjacent hardware/software systems
• Experience managing and coordinating engineering teams

The Work

• Autonomy, perception, and control layers for autonomous drone operations
• Navigation and path planning across large, unstructured outdoor environments
• Perception and machine learning pipelines for reliable autonomous operation during routine field inspections
• Fleet management architecture as we scale across multiple markets
• Onboard systems that perform under real world conditions, including variable terrain, weather, and connectivity dropouts

The Setup

• Five days a week in office
• Regular field deployments to customer sites (domestic and potentially international)
• Work directly with (and report to) the founder
• Competitive salary, meaningful early stage equity