Engineering Manager, Perception AI for Space

Trueanomalyinc; Denver, California (CO, MO); On-site; USD 205,000 - 315,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, Dental, Vision insurance

HRA/HSA options

PTO and paid holidays

401K

Parental Leave

Job summary

True Anomaly seeks a seasoned perception AI leader to build and guide an autonomous spacecraft perception stack. You will oversee world models, multi‑target tracking, sensor fusion, and edge deployment for on‑orbit operations, while growing a high‑performing team of engineers across five streams.

Ideal candidates bring 8+ years in CV/robotics, 4+ years of people management, and a track record of delivering complex, safety‑critical systems under tight compute and power budgets.

Qualifications

• Education: Master’s degree in computer science, robotics, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or related field; Ph.D. or Bachelor's degree with equivalent professional experience also accepted
• Experience: 8+ years in computer vision, robotics, autonomous systems, or perception AI engineering with at least 4‑5 years in people management, leading teams of 4+ engineers
• People Management: Demonstrated track record of building, growing, and developing high‑performing engineering teams including hiring, performance management, and career development
• Leadership: Proven ability to lead through influence, manage stakeholder expectations, drive execution in ambiguous environments, and deliver results through others
• Technical Foundation: Strong foundation in perception AI with depth in synthetic data generation, multi‑object tracking, sensor fusion, or edge AI deployment (sufficient for technical oversight and credibility)
• Domain Knowledge: Experience with resource‑constrained perception AI deployment, real‑time vision systems, or aerospace applications operating under strict compute, power, and thermal budgets
• Communication: Exceptional communication skills with ability to influence senior leadership, translate between technical and non‑technical audiences, and represent the team effectively
• Strategic Thinking: Translate organizational objectives into team strategy, prioritize competing demands, and balance technical excellence with delivery
• Process & Execution: Track record defining processes, establishing team norms, and driving execution excellence in fast‑paced environments
• Collaboration: Strong cross‑functional collaboration with ability to build relationships, resolve conflicts, and drive consensus across autonomy, flight software, hardware, and simulation teams
• Clearance: U.S. Citizen and eligible for government security clearance

Responsibilities

• Provide technical direction on world model architectures for photorealistic synthetic video generation, perception AI systems combining classical computer vision with modern deep learning, and edge deployment strategies
• Review and approve technical designs for generative AI systems, multi‑target tracking algorithms, sensor fusion pipelines, and model compression strategies
• Lead by example, setting the standard for technical work across design, implementation, and verification (approximately 50% of time)
• Define perception AI standards, validation approaches bridging synthetic and real‑world data, and hardware‑in‑the‑loop testing protocols
• Drive technical decisions on when to use physics‑based simulation versus generative AI for synthetic data, when classical algorithms excel versus learned representations, and real‑time performance trade‑offs
• Maintain technical credibility in generative AI for synthetic data, computer vision, state estimation, and resource‑constrained deployment
• Define and own the team roadmap in collaboration with perception AI leadership, balancing near‑term delivery with long‑term capability development across world models, multi‑modal fusion, and continuous learning from operational and synthetic data
• Translate organizational strategy into actionable team objectives aligned to defense and commercial customer missions
• Prioritize work across competing demands: photorealistic synthetic video generation, multi‑target tracking with decoy discrimination, signal processing and sensor fusion, camera calibration and control, edge‑deployed object detection
• Manage dependencies and coordinate with flight software, hardware, autonomy, and simulation teams for successful cross‑functional delivery
• Track and communicate progress, risks, and blockers to leadership with focus on integration milestones and operational acceptance
• Drive continuous improvement in processes, tools, and workflows to increase velocity from prototype to flight‑ready systems
• Work with program managers to scope projects, estimate timelines, and commit to deliverables
• Build, grow, and lead a team of perception and AI engineers through recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and retention
• Provide direct people management including 1‑on‑1s, performance reviews, goal setting, and career development
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, rigorous validation, and rapid iteration from synthetic data through simulation to flight
• Develop individual contributors into technical leaders through mentorship and growth opportunities
• Manage team dynamics, resolve conflicts, and ensure healthy team communication
• Bridge generative AI, classical perception, and modern deep learning approaches, guiding the team on when each paradigm applies

Skills

Perception AI

Team leadership

World models

Edge AI deployment

Education

Master's degree in CS/Robotics/EE/AE

PhD or Bachelor's with equivalent experience

Tools

Blender

Unreal

Job description

True Anomaly seeks a seasoned perception AI leader to build and guide an autonomous spacecraft perception stack. You will oversee world models, multi‑target tracking, sensor fusion, and edge deployment for on‑orbit operations, while growing a high‑performing team of engineers across five streams.

Ideal candidates bring 8+ years in CV/robotics, 4+ years of people management, and a track record of delivering complex, safety‑critical systems under tight compute and power budgets.