Perception Engineer

TECHNE; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An early-stage autonomy company is looking for a Founding Perception Engineer in Cambridge, UK. In this hybrid role, you will design and implement the perception layer for a multi-robot autonomy platform, handling complex environments. Candidates should have extensive experience in robotic perception, computer vision, and sensor fusion and be proficient in C++ and Python. This position offers a competitive salary of £80,000 to £100,000 plus equity, with a focus on real-world deployment of robotics.

Benefits

Competitive base salary

Meaningful equity

Opportunity to define autonomy platform

Qualifications

• Strong background in robotic perception, computer vision, or autonomy systems.
• Experience building full perception pipelines rather than isolated models.
• Solid understanding of sensor fusion and uncertainty modelling.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end perception stack used across a heterogeneous fleet of robots.
• Design and implement perception pipelines converting raw sensor data into structured world representations.
• Collaborate with Behavior, Systems, and Platform engineers to define clean interfaces and APIs.

Skills

Robotic perception

Computer vision

Sensor fusion

C++ programming

Python programming

Tools

ROS 2

Isaac Lab

Gazebo

MuJoCo

Job description

PERCEPTION ENGINEER – MULTI-ROBOT AUTONOMY

Location: Cambridge, UK. Hybrid with regular on-site work.

Salary: £80,000 – £100,000 plus equity.

Overview

An early-stage autonomy company is hiring a Founding Perception Engineer to build the perception layer for a multi-robot autonomy platform.

The system enables robotic teams to understand, reason about, and operate within complex environments, including degraded sensing and communications.

This is a founding-level role with ownership of perception architecture, from raw sensor inputs through to structured world models used for decision-making.

The work focuses on robustness, interpretability, and real-world deployment rather than isolated research outputs.

Role Responsibilities

You own the end-to-end perception stack used across a heterogeneous fleet of robots.

Key responsibilities include:

• Design and implementation of perception pipelines that convert raw sensor data into structured world representations.
• Multi-sensor fusion across cameras, LiDAR, GNSS, and IMU.
• Probabilistic reasoning under uncertainty and partial observability.
• Maintaining spatial and temporal consistency across distributed robotic agents.
• Integration of perception outputs with behaviour and planning systems.
• Development of evaluation, validation, and iteration workflows using simulation and real-world data.
• Close collaboration with Behaviour, Systems, and Platform engineers to define clean interfaces and APIs.
• Contributing to the perception roadmap and long-term autonomy architecture.

Technical Skillset

The ideal candidate brings:

• Strong background in robotic perception, computer vision, or autonomy systems.
• Experience building full perception pipelines rather than isolated models.
• Solid understanding of sensor fusion and uncertainty modelling.
• Familiarity with ROS 2 and perception tooling within its ecosystem.
• Experience working with simulation environments such as Isaac Lab, Gazebo, MuJoCo, or similar.
• Production-quality programming skills in C++ and Python.

Profile and Mindset

This role suits someone who:

• Enjoys ownership and architectural responsibility.
• Values clarity, robustness, and explainability in perception systems.
• Is comfortable working in early-stage, research-heavy environments.
• Wants their work to directly influence robotic decision-making.
• Enjoys collaborating across disciplines to solve system-level problems.

Working Style and Expectations

• High ownership during early roadmap definition and execution.
• Regular on-site collaboration in Cambridge.
• Small, senior technical team with direct access to founders.
• Focus on delivering capability rather than publishing outputs.

Compensation and Upside

• Competitive base salary.
• Meaningful equity aligned with early impact.
• Opportunity to define perception foundations for a long-term autonomy platform.