Forward Deployed Engineer (Aerospace)

Tera AI; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Tera AI in San Diego is building a new generation of spatial AI to advance autonomous capabilities. The team combines leaders from Google, Google Brain, and Shield AI and is backed by VC funding.

The role involves field tests, demonstrations, and customer-facing work across the autonomy stack, with weekly travel to diverse sites and a focus on delivering robust, scalable AI for navigation, perception, and control.

Qualifications

• Experience deploying and managing autonomy software in production.
• Knowledge of latest computer vision techniques and geospatial AI.
• Experience shipping embedded AI across platforms (e.g. Nvidia Orin NX or Qualcomm).
• Knowledge of navigation stacks across platforms and hardware/software integrations (ArduPilot/PX4) across ground, aerial, and maritime platforms.
• Strong communication skills and experience working directly with end-customers.
• Knowledge of government requirements, including compliance and security considerations.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and execute field tests, demonstrations, and pilot programs in dynamic environments, including rural terrain and wilderness.
• Extend new capabilities and improve product robustness by closely working with researchers and engineers.
• Work closely with customers and partners to implement, test, and develop solutions across the autonomy stack.
• Willing to travel weekly to new sites based on demo and internal testing requirements.
• Rapidly iterate in the field with the team on solutions to problems identified in the field.

Skills

Autonomy deployment

Computer vision

Geospatial AI

Embedded AI

Customer communication

Tools

ArduPilot/PX4

NVIDIA Orin NX

Qualcomm

Job description

We are a well capitalized stealth VC-backed startup building a new type of spatial AI capable of universally solving autonomy. We innovate at the foundational layer of AI by training our own AI models.

Our team

Our team is composed of AI pioneers and leaders from Google X, Google Brain, and Shield AI. Several of us are repeat founders, with deep commercialization insights across multiple enterprise segments.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and execute field tests, demonstrations, and pilot programs in dynamic environments, including rural terrain and wilderness.
• Extend new capabilities and improve the product robustness by closely working everyday with our team of AI researchers and engineers
• Work closely with our customers and partners to implement, test, and develop solutions across the autonomy stack
• Willing to travel weekly to new sites based on demo and internal testing requirements
• Rapidly iterate in the field with our team on solutions to problems you help identify on the fly

Qualifications

• Experience deploying and managing autonomy software in production
• Knowledge of latest computer vision techniques and geospatial AI
• Experience shipping embedded AI across platforms (e.g. Nvidia Orin NX or Qualcomm)
• Knowledge of navigation stacks across platforms and associated hardware/software integrations (e.g. ArduPilot/PX4) across ground, aerial, and maritime platforms.
• Strong communication skills and experience working directly with end-customers
• Knowledge of government requirements, including compliance and security considerations.

Who you are

• Learn-it-all, not know-it-all: you have an innate curiosity for all things intellectual, and it’s something you can’t turn off. You obsess over finer details others miss.
• High intensity: you thrive in a high-stakes environment, and are driven by an innate obsession, not by others.
• Fast learner: you gravitate toward learning new things, and often find yourself learning more quickly than everyone around you.
• Driven by pain and discomfort: you enjoy leaving your comfort zone and challenging yourself
• Creative: track record of solving hard problems with solutions worthy of academic papers
• Educator: you take pride in your ability to communicate complex topics clearly and have excellent speaking and writing skills.
• Zero ego: you don’t just take feedback, but truly see it as a gift. You don’t wait until feedback is given, but solicit it with every opportunity.
• Founder mentality: you roll up your sleeves to help solve the most pressing problem on a given day, even if it has nothing to do with this job post.

Location

• Must be based out of San Francisco Bay Area or San Diego County
• Must be willing to travel for extended periods with short notice