Senior Perception Engineer - Spacecraft Vision & Relative Navigation

Approach Venture LLC; Golden (CO); On-site; USD 145,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity (stock options)

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Parental leave

3 weeks paid vacation + 10+ holidays

Job summary

Approach Venture LLC in Golden, Colorado seeks a Senior Perception Engineer to lead the perception and navigation stack for autonomous spacecraft docking. You will own the vision pipeline, sensor fusion, and state estimation across prototypes to flight, coordinating calibration, simulation, and ground testing.

You will implement and verify filters, develop sensor models, and craft flight-ready software in C++ with Python tooling, while collaborating with GNC, flight software, and avionics

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or higher in a technical field.
• Hands-on experience delivering camera-based pose estimation or multi-sensor fusion on space or robotic hardware.
• Proficient in C++ and Python software development.
• Experience deploying algorithms on real-world robotic or space systems with Git.

Responsibilities

• Lead relative navigation for proximity operations and docking end to end (perception, sensor fusion, estimator).
• Bring onboard vision system to flight readiness: target detection, camera calibration, pose estimation, outlier rejection.
• Design and verify relative-state filters (EKF/MEKF/UKF) blending camera data with other sensors.
• Develop first-principles measurement models for all sensors in the navigation suite.
• Set navigation accuracy budgets and translate into sensor/interface requirements (rate, latency, covariance).
• Build calibration rigs and ground-truth tooling for bench and simulation measurement.
• Prove robustness via hardware-in-the-loop testing with statistical checks.
• Write perception/navigation code in C++ and dashboards/tools in Python for flight software.
• Define metrics to track navigation health from development to flight.
• Support flight operations and lead anomaly investigations.

Skills

Camera-based pose estimation

Multi-sensor fusion

C++ & Python development

Git version control

Problem solving in startup

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in aerospace, electrical, computer science, physics, math

Tools

Git

Job description

Senior Perception Engineer - Give autonomous spacecraft the vision to find, track, and dock with each other

Golden, Colorado | On-site

Opportunity Summary

Our spacecraft are built from modular elements that locate one another in orbit, close the gap, and lock together with no human in the loop. The final approach unfolds faster than any operator could react, so each vehicle has to see, estimate, and decide entirely on its own. As Senior Perception Engineer, you will lead the relative navigation system that makes this possible: the cameras, sensors, and estimation algorithms that tell each element precisely where its neighbors are and how they are moving.

You will own the vision pipeline that detects and tracks nearby vehicles, fuse it with the rest of the relative sensor suite, and give the docking controller a state estimate it can trust from initial detection all the way to contact. Your scope runs from early prototypes through flight: setting sensor and interface requirements, standing up calibration, simulation, and test infrastructure, verifying algorithms on the bench and in orbit, and running down anomalies once hardware is flying. You will work every day alongside a small group of GNC, flight software, and avionics engineers.

About Us

We are a venture-backed, seed-stage space company in the Denver aerospace corridor developing modular spacecraft that assemble themselves in orbit, enabling vehicles far larger and more capable than anything that can be packed into a single launch. Our team spans hardware, software, and systems engineering, and we are moving from flight demonstration toward our first operational systems with the support of leading deep-tech and space investors.

Job Duties

• Lead relative navigation for proximity operations and docking end to end, covering perception, sensor fusion, and the estimator that feeds the control loop
• Bring the onboard vision system to flight readiness, including target detection, camera calibration, pose estimation, and outlier rejection that hold up across changing range, lighting, and relative motion
• Design, tune, and verify the relative-state filter (EKF, MEKF, UKF, or similar) that blends camera data with the other relative sensors and manages sensor handoffs as separation distance shrinks
• Develop first-principles measurement models for every sensor in the relative navigation suite
• Set the navigation accuracy budget across the full approach and flow it down into sensor and interface requirements for rate, latency, covariance, and dropout behavior
• Build calibration rigs and ground-truth tooling so perception performance can be measured on the bench and reproduced in simulation
• Prove out performance and robustness through hardware-in-the-loop testing backed by statistical consistency checks
• Write perception and navigation code for onboard flight software in C++, and build the supporting simulations, analysis tools, and dashboards in Python
• Define the metrics used to track navigation health from development through flight
• Support flight operations, monitor on-orbit navigation performance, and lead anomaly investigations

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, or a related technical field
• Hands-on experience delivering camera-based pose estimation or multi-sensor fusion on fielded robotic or space hardware
• Professional software development experience in both C++ and Python
• Track record of developing, testing, and deploying algorithms on real-world robotic or space systems, with day-to-day use of Git
• Ability to break down complex technical problems and drive them to resolution with minimal supervision in a fast-paced startup
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Must be a U.S. Person under ITAR (U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee) or eligible to obtain the required export authorization

Preferred Experience

• 5+ years of professional experience in perception, state estimation, or GNC, or a Master's or PhD in robotics, computer vision, or a related engineering field
• Deep computer vision background for metric pose: camera modeling and calibration, fiducial or feature-based pose estimation, multi-view geometry, and image processing on embedded processors
• Strong command of sequential estimation, including Kalman filtering, residual editing, filter tuning, covariance analysis and realism, consider parameters, and consistency testing (NIS, NEES, chi-squared)
• Experience fusing asynchronous, delayed, and intermittent measurements from mixed sensor types, including time synchronization and attitude representation on SO(3)
• Bench-level sensor expertise: measurement modeling, bias estimation, calibration, and characterization
• Experience with embedded software development under real-time constraints
• Familiarity with orbital mechanics, proximity operations dynamics, or electromagnetic systems
• Experience carrying a perception or navigation system from prototype through deployment

Why Join Us

• Own the system that lets spacecraft see and dock with one another, with a direct line from your algorithms to on-orbit results
• Architect the stack from first prototypes through flight instead of maintaining a legacy system
• Work hand in hand with a small GNC, flight software, and avionics team where every engineer shapes the vehicle
• Join a seed-stage company at an inflection point, moving from flight demonstration to operational systems
• Early equity through stock options
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Short- and long-term disability and life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• 3 weeks of paid vacation plus 10+ paid holidays per year

Compensation Details

$145,000 - $190,000 + equity