Autonomous UAS Navigation & GNC Engineer

SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS & RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC. (SARA); Colorado Springs (CO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision, disability

Discretionary Employee bonuses

401(k) match/profit sharing

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

Job summary

Scientific Applications & Research Associates, Inc. (SARA) in Colorado Springs is seeking an experienced UAS/GNC Engineer to lead unmanned navigation and control technology development for DoD/DoE programs.

The role focuses on flight controller integration, autonomous navigation, and edge AI processing on embedded platforms. The successful candidate will collaborate with hardware, software, and AI teams, contribute to firmware, sensor integration, and real-time perception using ROS, MAVLink, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
• 5–7 years of hands-on experience with flight controller integration and UAV software development.
• Experience with NVIDIA Jetson AI acceleration, DeepStream SDK, and/or CUDA programming.
• Knowledge of AI-driven perception, SLAM, and real-time processing on Jetson platforms.
• Strong proficiency in PX4, ArduPilot, MAVLink, ROS, C++, and Python.

Responsibilities

• Configure and integrate flight controllers (PX4, ArduPilot) with UAV platforms such as CUBE.
• Perform firmware flashing, parameter tuning, and sensor integration (GPS, IMU, LiDAR, magnetometer, barometer).
• Develop and optimize embedded software using C++, Python, ROS, and MAVLink for Jetson-based AI/vision systems.
• Implement computer vision and AI-based perception for real-time object tracking and SLAM (OpenCV, TensorFlow, PyTorch, DeepStream).
• Utilize CUDA programming to optimize neural network inference on Jetson platforms for edge AI deployment.
• Establish reliable networking and telemetry solutions, integrating MAVLink over Wi-Fi/LTE/5G and GStreamer/RTSP for FPV video streaming.
• Collaborate on mission planning and autonomous navigation using QGroundControl and Mission Planner.
• Support remote control and monitoring solutions for UAV operations in field environments.
• Build and lead a team focused on unmanned system navigation and control technology.

Skills

C++

Python

ROS

MAVLink

PX4

ArduPilot

Jetson

CUDA

OpenCV

TensorFlow

PyTorch

SLAM

Autonomous navigation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field

Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field

Tools

QGroundControl

Mission Planner

NVIDIA Jetson

Job description

Scientific Applications & Research Associates, Inc. (SARA) in Colorado Springs is seeking an experienced UAS/GNC Engineer to lead unmanned navigation and control technology development for DoD/DoE programs.

The role focuses on flight controller integration, autonomous navigation, and edge AI processing on embedded platforms. The successful candidate will collaborate with hardware, software, and AI teams, contribute to firmware, sensor integration, and real-time perception using ROS, MAVLink, and