Team Lead - Visual Localization

SE3 Labs; München; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Real Ownership: Employee participation

Modern toolset and flat hierarchy

AI-boosted workplace

31 Paid Days Off

Well-being benefits

Team offsites

Mentorship

Job summary

SE3 Labs is seeking a Team Lead for Visual Localization to build and lead a team delivering perception and localization software for autonomous systems. You will own the localization roadmap, hire engineers, and ensure the system runs on real sensors within onboard compute limits.

You will remain involved in architecture and core algorithms, with 20–40% hands-on coding and collaboration with robotics software, embedded teams and hardware specialists.

Qualifications

• You have personally built VIO or SLAM systems and taken substantial parts through deployment.
• You have led engineers through difficult technical work with track records of delivery.
• You can recruit and develop engineers and make hiring decisions.

Responsibilities

• Hire and develop localization engineers and set ownership.
• Own localization roadmap, priorities and system delivery.
• Contribute to architecture and core algorithms while guiding the team.

Skills

Team leadership

VIO/SLAM experience

C++ production code

Python for analysis

Linux familiarity

CUDA knowledge

German language

English fluency

Education

Master’s degree or PhD in a technical field

Tools

C++

Python

CUDA

Linux

Job description

Join SE3 Labs as Team Lead - Visual Localization

Build and lead the team that makes our autonomous systems know where they are.

About SE3

SE3 Labs builds spatial intelligence and autonomy software for unmanned systems. We combine 3D computer vision, state estimation and AI to help autonomous platforms perceive their surroundings, know where they are and operate when GPS and other sensors become unreliable. Defence is a core application of our work today.

We are growing to a team of 100+ people. Join at a stage where you can shape our localization technology, help build the team and grow your responsibilities as the company expands.

Our founding team’s research has received more than 90,000 citations. You will work closely with technical founders and engineers with deep experience in computer vision and autonomous systems, turning that research depth into systems that work in the field.

About The Role

You will hire and develop engineers, own the localization roadmap, set priorities and deliver a system that works on real sensors, within onboard compute limits and in difficult field conditions.

You will remain closely involved in architecture, core algorithms and debugging, with roughly 20–40% of your time spent coding. Work with senior individual contributors to set technical direction and with robotics software, embedded, hardware and field teams to turn it into a reliable deployed system.

What You’ll Work On

• Build the Team: Hire excellent localization engineers, assess their technical work and help them develop. Give clear feedback, establish ownership and build a team that can solve difficult problems together.
• Roadmap and Delivery: Own the roadmap and delivery of VIO, SLAM, sensor fusion, calibration, mapping and relocalization. Turn mission requirements and observed failures into specific engineering priorities.
• Technical Direction: Guide architecture and core algorithm decisions with the team. Make the tradeoffs between accuracy, robustness, latency, memory and power explicit and test them against real data.
• Evaluation and Replay: Build the evaluation and replay loop so the team can make most improvements from recorded data. Set measurable criteria for accuracy, robustness and runtime, and maintain regression tests that catch failures before deployment.
• Hands-On Engineering: Stay involved in critical algorithms, production code and difficult debugging. Help resolve failures caused by timing, calibration, vibration, motion blur, poor lighting and degraded sensors.
• Integration: Coordinate sensor and compute requirements, interfaces and integration with adjacent teams. Ensure localization outputs and uncertainty estimates work for planning, control and downstream autonomy.
• Field Deployment: Take the system through live sensor testing and field deployment. Use mission logs and observed failures to decide what the team builds next.

Your Profile

• You have personally built VIO or SLAM systems and taken substantial parts through deployment. You can explain your implementation, its limitations and measured improvements in accuracy, robustness or runtime.
• You have led engineers through difficult technical work. You can point to systems your team delivered, people you helped develop and the decisions you were responsible for. This may be your first formal management role if you can demonstrate that experience.
• You can assess an engineer’s technical work, give useful feedback and help them improve. You take an active role in recruiting and selecting the people who join your team.
• You have strong foundations in 3D geometry, estimation, optimization and sensor fusion, and enough depth to examine algorithm and architecture decisions in detail.
• You write production C++ and use Python for analysis, evaluation and tooling. You are comfortable working with Linux, real sensors, calibration, synchronization and constrained onboard compute. Rust experience is a plus.
• You have used replay, evaluation datasets and automated tests to guide development. You can explain how your team measured progress, reproduced failures and decided when a system was ready to deploy.
• You have a master’s degree, PhD or equivalent practical experience in a relevant technical field.
• You speak fluent English; German is a plus. Given the nature of SE3’s work in the defence sector, candidates must be eligible to work on defence‑related projects and, where required, obtain the relevant security clearance.

Especially Valued Bonus Skills

• Experience deploying perception systems on Nvidia Jetson, embedded CPUs/GPUs, writing CUDA kernels, optimizing deep neural networks for edge deployment.
• Experience with LWIR thermal cameras (for navigation), rolling shutter effects, visual‑inertial calibration, multi‑camera rigs, fisheye/wide‑angle lenses or monocular depth.
• Experience with GNSS‑denied navigation in UAV context, terrain‑relative navigation, map‑based localization and re‑localization.
• Experience building evaluation datasets, replay systems, perception observability, log tooling, and automated regression pipelines.
• Publications or open‑source contributions in SLAM, VIO, 3D computer vision, state estimation, or robotics are welcome, but not required.

Perks & Benefits

• Real Ownership: Participate in SE3’s growth through our employee participation programme
• Work Environment to Excel at: Find a high‑quality and modern toolset, flat hierarchy and a skilled, driven team which will push the limits together with you
• AI‑boosted workplace: We empower every employee with best‑in‑class AI tools and agents, giving you unlimited access to the latest advancements and a true productivity edge
• 31 Paid Days Off: 30 vacation days plus your birthday off
• Well‑being Access: Free membership to gyms, yoga, and wellness through EGYM Wellpass
• Team Offsites: We go on 2 company retreats per year, our last ones were in Italy and Greece
• Mentorship: Work closely with experienced engineers and get paired with a professional mentor to support your growth

Our Process

• Intro Call (15 min): Let’s get to know each other
• Coding / Algorithm Interview: (90 min): We work through a practical perception, estimation, or robotics software problem together
• Technical Interview (1 hr): We dive into the systems you have delivered, your technical decisions, and how you hire, develop engineers and lead delivery
• Team Dinner / Lunch: Meet the team and see whether it is a strong fit on both sides.