Autonomy Engineering Lead — Build Real-World Robotic Systems

SYOS Aerospace; Mount Maunganui; On-site; NZD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

SYOS Aerospace is seeking an Autonomy Engineering Team Lead to guide a team of 7–10 engineers working across autonomy, robotics, software, ML, CV and GNC. This leadership role focuses on building a high-performing culture, setting goals, planning workloads, and coordinating with GNC, Software, Systems, Mechatronics, Electronics and Flight Test leaders.

You don’t need to be the deepest expert in every domain; you will mentor, align multidisciplinary efforts and push innovative autonomous

Qualifications

• Experience in leading and developing engineering teams.
• Background in autonomy engineering, robotics, software, mechatronics or a closely related field.
• Experience with multidisciplinary teams across GNC, autonomy, ML, CV, robotics or embedded systems.
• Strong understanding of how autonomous systems are developed, integrated and tested.
• Experience with UAV, UGV or USV platforms is a great starting point.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop a team of 7–10 autonomy engineers.
• Build a high-performing, collaborative engineering culture.
• Set goals, manage performance and support career development.
• Plan workload, priorities and delivery across multiple programmes.
• Partner closely with GNC, Software, Systems, Mechatronics, Electronics and Flight Test technical leaders.
• Provide direction and support on complex autonomy and integration challenges.
• Drive best practices, ways of working and continuous improvement across the autonomy team.
• Help develop the capability, structure and technical maturity of the team as SYOS scales.
• Encourage engineers to explore new technologies and bring big ideas into real-world systems.
• Support technical leaders without needing to be the hands-on expert in every domain.

Skills

Leadership

Autonomy engineering

Robotics

Software development

Mechatronics

GNC integration

Machine learning

Computer vision

Communication

Tools

ROS/ROS2

PX4

ArduPilot

C++

Python

Job description

SYOS Aerospace is seeking an Autonomy Engineering Team Lead to guide a team of 7–10 engineers working across autonomy, robotics, software, ML, CV and GNC. This leadership role focuses on building a high-performing culture, setting goals, planning workloads, and coordinating with GNC, Software, Systems, Mechatronics, Electronics and Flight Test leaders.

You don’t need to be the deepest expert in every domain; you will mentor, align multidisciplinary efforts and push innovative autonomous