Autonomy Engineer

Falcon IT and Staffing Solutions; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Comprehensive benefits

Paid time off

Health insurance

Job summary

Falcon IT and Staffing Solutions seeks an Autonomy Engineer for a Vancouver, WA hybrid role developing autonomous ground/air systems. You will own functions within the autonomy stack and collaborate across mechanical, electrical, software, and safety teams, contributing to field validation and system commissioning.

Responsibilities include testing pipelines, APIs, data-driven KPIs, ROS 2/DDS interfaces, and RTOS integration.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in engineering or equivalent, or bachelor’s with 2+ years experience.
• Professional C++ and Python programming experience.
• Experience with ROS 2, Git, Docker, Linux, and Bash scripting.
• Knowledge of ground-vehicle autonomy: localization, odometry, mapping, perception, control.
• Experience with robotic sensors (cameras, lidar, radar, ultrasound, GPS, IMUs).
• U.S. citizenship required.

Responsibilities

• Define operational-design-domain constraints and KPIs for autonomy.
• Decompose autonomy behaviors into modular sub-functions aligned with roadmap.
• Architect unit, integration, HIL, and SIL testing pipelines.
• Field-validate, debug in real time on hardware, root-cause analysis.
• Collaborate with hardware/software teams on compute budgets and requirements.
• Define clear APIs and resolve cross-team dependencies.
• Identify bottlenecks and edge cases with data-driven analysis.
• Travel to U.S. customer sites for Site Acceptance Testing.
• Design, code and deploy C++/Python for ground robots interfacing ROS 2, DDS.
• Support sensor integration, ML apps, safety, and performance testing.

Skills

C++ programming

Python programming

ROS 2

Ground-vehicle autonomy

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Master's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Git

Docker

Linux

Bash scripting

RTOS

DDS

CMake

Job description

Role: Autonomy Engineer.

Location: Vancouver, WA (Hybrid — 3 - 4 days per week onsite).

Job Description:

Our client develops advanced automation systems, including ground and air autonomous systems and sensor deployments supporting defense and civil-aviation environments.

The company is moving from research and development into an operational business with a public-facing defense-market product. Its autonomy software has already been deployed at multiple airfields supporting daily operations, with future work expected to include third-party robotic integrations and new mission profiles.

The Autonomy Engineer will own one or more functions within the autonomy system and work cross-functionally with mechanical, electrical, back-end software, autonomy software, product, safety, metrics, and user-research stakeholders. This position is central to launching and scaling an autonomous airfield operating system.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define operational-design-domain constraints and rigorous KPIs to measure autonomy performance and success.
• Decompose autonomous behaviors, including perception, planning, and control, into modular sub-functions and prioritize them against the product roadmap.
• Architect unit, integration, Hardware-in-the-Loop, and Software-in-the-Loop testing pipelines to establish statistical confidence in code stability.
• Participate in field validation, including real-time debugging and root-cause analysis on physical hardware.
• Collaborate with hardware and software teams to establish compute budgets and high-level technical requirements.
• Define clear APIs and resolve system-level dependencies across technical organizations.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and long-tail edge cases, using data-driven analysis to address architectural gaps before they affect scalability.
• Travel to customer sites throughout the United States to lead Site Acceptance Testing and system commissioning.
• Design, code, and deploy production-quality C++ and Python software for ground robots, interfacing with RTOS, drivers, ROS 2, and DDS.
• Support sensor integration, machine-learning applications, fault-tolerant mechanisms, regulatory compliance, and rigorous safety, reliability, and performance testing.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree in mechanical, aerospace, electrical, or computer engineering; engineering physics; computer science; or a related technical discipline; OR a bachelor's degree in one of these fields plus at least two years of professional experience.
• Professional programming experience with C++ and Python.
• Experience with ROS 2, Git, Docker, Linux, and Bash scripting.
• Knowledge of ground-vehicle autonomy concepts, including localization, odometry, mapping, perception, and control.
• Experience with or familiarity with integrating robotic sensors, including cameras, lidar, radar, ultrasonic sensors, GPS, and IMUs.
• U.S. citizenship required.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Five or more years of relevant technical experience.
• Two or more years of technical product-management experience, ideally involving robotics or software.
• Experience developing production-grade robotics products or autonomous-vehicle software.
• Experience integrating sensors into autonomous systems.
• Ability to solve complex cross-functional problems and influence strong outcomes.
• Ability to translate ambiguous technical problems into clear product direction and executable plans.

BENEFITS

• Competitive salary.
• Comprehensive benefits package, including paid time off, health insurance, long-term care insurance, short- and long-term disability insurance, and life insurance.