Founding Autonomy Engineer — Field-Tested Robotics Leader

QAIL AI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity stake

Ownership of autonomy architecture

Regular field testing in SF

Job summary

QAIL AI in San Francisco is seeking a founding engineer to own the autonomy stack—from sensors to path planning—for an autonomous ground vehicle. You will help transform a working prototype into a vehicle capable of real-ground autonomy, working side by side with the founders to shape how the team builds.

You will own localization, perception and mapping, planning, control, and testing, with hardware selection, ROS 2 integration, and safe operation in challenging terrain.

Qualifications

• 4+ years building autonomy for real outdoor robots or vehicles.
• Depth in at least two of state estimation, perception and mapping, or planning and control, and working knowledge of the third.
• Off-road know-how: elevation/traversability mapping and wheel slip.

Responsibilities

• Own the autonomy stack end to end: localization, perception, planning, control and safety.
• Choose, mount and power sensors and compute hardware; field-test and iterate quickly.
• Define engineering practices and help hire the next engineers.

Skills

C++

Python

ROS 2

Linux

Jetson/CUDA

Edge compute

Field testing

Tools

NVIDIA Jetson

ROS 2 Humble

CUDA

Job description

QAIL AI in San Francisco is seeking a founding engineer to own the autonomy stack—from sensors to path planning—for an autonomous ground vehicle. You will help transform a working prototype into a vehicle capable of real-ground autonomy, working side by side with the founders to shape how the team builds.

You will own localization, perception and mapping, planning, control, and testing, with hardware selection, ROS 2 integration, and safe operation in challenging terrain.