Lead Autonomy Engineer

SSCI, Inc.; Burlington (MA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

SSCI, Inc. in Burlington, Massachusetts is seeking a Lead Autonomy Engineer. This role involves leading a small engineering team to develop solutions for mission autonomy technologies. Responsibilities include supporting proposals and managing program milestones, along with technical contributions within a multi-disciplinary environment.

The ideal candidate will possess a relevant degree with extensive experience in autonomy and team leadership. Strong programming skills and familiarity with simulation tools are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Math, Stats, Engineering, or equivalent + 7+ years in autonomy.
• Experience leading teams and programs in autonomy-related roles.
• Strong communication skills for technical writing and problem-solving.

Responsibilities

• Lead team to create innovative solutions for technical challenges.
• Serve as subject matter expert in mission autonomy technologies.
• Support proposal efforts and manage team to achieve milestones.

Skills

Leadership in autonomy technologies

C/C++ programming

Python programming

Simulation tools experience

AI/ML knowledge

Education

Bachelor's in Math, Computer Science or related

Master's or Ph.D. preferred

Tools

AFSIM

NGTS

Linux development environments

Job description

The Lead Autonomy Engineer is a key technical contributor and small engineering team lead on multiple programs aligned with division and/or group objectives. Mission autonomy is the ability for autonomous agents or teams to conduct strategic decision-making and coordinated actions toward longer-term operational objectives through persistent world modeling, predictive simulation, and adaptive planning under uncertainty and adversarial conditions.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team to develop innovative solutions to address technical challenges derived from customer requirements.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in emerging mission autonomy technologies.
• Support or lead marketing and proposal efforts in mission autonomy.
• Support or lead managing and tasking team to achieve program milestones.
• Take primary responsibility for prime and customer-facing interactions.
• Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in mission autonomy and other areas relevant to Scientific Systems.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams to advance R&D roadmaps.
• The role does require the ability to sit or stand at a desk and work on a computer for prolonged periods of time.
• This role may require occasional travel when necessary.
• May require the ability to push/pull/lift up to 15 pounds.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a US DOD Security Clearance.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in Math, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Physical Science, Operations Research, Data Science, or equivalent experience and 7+ years of progressive autonomy technologies experience including team leadership in a related industry, a Master degree and 5+ years of related engineering experience, or a Ph.D. degree and 2+ years working in a related engineering role.
• Experience working in a team leadership role in a related industry.
• Proven track record of leading proposals and winning contracts.
• Proven track record of leading programs in the principal investigator role or similar experience.
• Experience in building and integrating software for edge platforms.
• Experience with C/C++, Python, and/or project-specific required languages (e.g. Java, Rust, etc.).
• Experience assisting with non-technical programmatic priorities as needed, including staff planning, budget estimation and tracking, and customer-facing interactions.
• Background in robotics technologies related to motion planning, behavior modeling, or decision-making and their accompanying algorithms.
• Experience with simulation tools and environments (e.g., AFSIM, NGTS) for validation, verification, and training.

Preferred Qualifications

• M.S. or Ph.D. degrees
• Familiar with AI/ML standard libraries and tools.
• Experience working in Linux-based development environments.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Experience working on both classical autonomy and machine learning and the combination of the two, blending rule-based systems with learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning and generative methods to achieve resilient, adaptive behavior.
• Experience developing software modules that combine planning, decision-making, and behavior execution in dynamic, adversarial environments.
• Experience implementing and testing behavior architectures such as multi-agent collaboration, target engagement, payload management, reconnaissance, and engagement in adversarial scenarios.
• Ability to analyze mission logs to diagnose failures and optimize models for iterative development.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills including technical writing skills.
• Ability to identify and creatively solve complex problems.