Senior Perception Software Engineer

Seasats; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Competitive insurance

401k matching up to 4%

Four free lunches per week

Employee activity fund

Pet-friendly office

Unlimited/Flex PTO

Job summary

Seasats in San Diego seeks a Senior Perception Software Engineer to advance the perception stack for unmanned surface vehicles, turning radar and camera data into a real-time environmental picture and deploying algorithms while optimizing for embedded hardware.

You will own architecture and technical direction, lead design efforts, and mentor engineers, collaborating with vehicle software, UI, and operations to deliver actionable displays and robust perception pipelines in challenging ocean

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 4+ years on perception problems in fielded systems.
• Real-time sensor data processing on embedded or compute-limited platforms.
• Experience with classical perception algorithms: clustering, segmentation, filtering, sensor fusion, and probabilistic tracking.
• Familiarity with modern computer vision models and ML components.
• Expert-level Python with NumPy/SciPy/OpenCV and performance profiling.
• Solid grounding in 3D geometry and sensor calibration.
• Ability to architect subsystems, lead technical efforts, and mentor engineers.
• Strong technical communication and teamwork.

Responsibilities

• Own the design and implementation of perception algorithms for detection, tracking, avoidance, and state estimation.
• Integrate ML models into the perception pipeline and decide between ML and classical approaches.
• Optimize code for real-time execution on embedded platforms.
• Build tests and expand our simulation environment to rigorously evaluate algorithms and prevent regressions.
• Collaborate with vehicle software, UI, and operations teams to translate perception into intuitive displays for operators.
• Lead sensor selection and evaluation, balancing performance, power, and cost.
• Mentor teammates and elevate software engineering practices across the perception stack.
• Test and tune algorithms at local launch sites and in field trials.

Skills

7+ yrs exp

Perception: 4+ yrs

Real-time sensing

Perception algorithms

Python expert

3D geometry

System architecture

Mentorship

Tools

Python

OpenCV

NumPy/SciPy

ROS

C++

CUDA

CuPy

Job description

Senior Perception Software Engineer

San Diego, CA (in-office)

Salary Range: $180,000 - $250,000 + stock options, 401k matching, and other benefits

Role Overview:

Seasats' vehicles operate in highly remote and often communications-limited environments. To complete persistent missions at scale, the vehicles must be able to perceive and reason about the world around them without humans in the loop. Seasats has built a reliable and increasingly intelligent autonomy stack incorporating onboard sensors and processing.

In this role, you'll immerse yourself in the perception system at the heart of that stack: the algorithms that turn raw radar, camera, and other sensor data into a reliable, real-time picture of the vessel's environment. You'll take algorithms from design to deployment: evaluating sensors, building detection and tracking pipelines, optimizing for embedded hardware, and validating against real-world maritime conditions. Your work will directly determine how safely and intelligently our vessels navigate dynamic ocean environments.

Role Details:

As a senior member of the team, you'll help set the architecture and technical direction of the perception stack and raise the bar for how perception software is designed, tested, and fielded across the company. You'll work independently on hard algorithmic problems while collaborating closely with the rest of the vehicle software team.

On a day-by-day basis, you will:

• Own the design and implementation of perception algorithms for detection, tracking, avoidance, and state estimation
• Integrate ML models into the perception pipeline alongside classical algorithms, and help decide which approach best fits each problem
• Optimize code for real-time execution on embedded platforms
• Build tests and expand our simulation environment to rigorously evaluate algorithms and prevent regressions
• Partner with vehicle software, UI, and operations teams to translate the vehicle's perception of its environment into intuitive, actionable displays for operators
• Lead sensor selection and evaluation, collaborating with the vehicle team on tradeoffs across performance, power, and cost
• Mentor teammates and elevate software engineering practices across the perception stack
• See your code come to life on the water as you test and tune algorithms at local launch sites

This is an excellent opportunity to do high impact work, see your code go into live field robotics applications, and join a fun and hard-working team on the cutting edge of ocean autonomy.

About You:

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 4+ years on perception problems in fielded systems
• Deep experience processing real-time sensor data (especially camera, radar, and/or LiDAR) on embedded or compute-limited platforms
• Command of classical perception algorithms: clustering, segmentation, filtering, sensor fusion, and probabilistic tracking (e.g., Kalman or particle filters)
• Familiarity with modern computer vision models and comfort working alongside ML-based components
• Expert-level Python, with deep fluency in the scientific stack (NumPy, SciPy, OpenCV) and a track record of profiling and optimizing numerical code
• Solid grounding in 3D geometry: coordinate frames, transforms, and sensor calibration
• Proven ability to architect subsystems, lead technical efforts, and mentor engineers
• Strong technical communication skills and a team-oriented attitude

In addition, it's nice (though not essential) if you have experience working with:

• Training or fine-tuning ML models for perception tasks
• C++ for performance-critical components
• GPU or native acceleration of Python code (e.g., CUDA, CuPy, Numba)
• ROS or similar robotics middleware
• Simulation environments for robotics testing and validation
• Maritime and/or acoustic data
• Path-planning and control algorithms

About Seasats:

At Seasats, we're passionate about delivering maritime robotics solutions to redefine the maritime industry. Our primary products are unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), designed to carry sensors at sea for months at a time. Our USVs provide persistent monitoring and data acquisition to defense, scientific, and commercial customers, and have autonomously crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. After thousands of years in which the only way to gather information from the ocean was to put people on a boat, these uncrewed vessels are transforming how humanity monitors and interacts with the ocean. Here, you'll find the space and opportunity to do your life's best work.

Along with your salary, you'll receive perks including:

• Stock options
• Competitive insurance (including a 99% employer-covered Gold HMO plan or other options)
• 401k matching up to 4% of salary
• Four free lunches per week
• An employee activity fund
• A pet-friendly office
• Unlimited/Flex PTO

Hiring Notes:

Due to export control requirements applicable to this position, we are only able to consider U.S. persons, as defined by U.S. export control laws. This includes U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and individuals granted asylee or refugee status.

We appreciate diverse perspectives and life experiences, and we're committed to building a team that reflects a wide range of backgrounds. Seasats provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination of any type based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law.

We look forward to reviewing your application!