Autonomy Engineer

San Francisco Bay Area USA. Hybrid. Full time.

Advantra is partnering with a stealth AI robotics startup in San Francisco Bay Area to hire an Autonomy Engineer to build and ship full-stack autonomous systems for real robots.

You will develop autonomy planning and control systems for robots. This includes motion planning behavior orchestration 3D vision integration and real-time deployment on edge hardware. You will optimize performance implement safety interlocks integrate perception outputs into navigation and planning layers and deliver production-ready autonomous systems that operate reliably in real environments.

1. Build and optimize autonomy stack including global and local planning PID/MPC controllers and behavior state machines.
   

2. Integrate SLAM VO and BA outputs into mapping and planning layers.
   

3. Fuse depth and point-cloud data for navigation and task execution.
   

4. Deploy models and systems on Jetson Orin NX/AGX and similar edge hardware.
   

5. Implement safety interlocks watchdogs and fail-safes.
   

6. Build minimal operator UI telemetry logs and fleet-safe OTA pipelines.
   

7. Define datasets metrics and evaluation harnesses; run benchmarks and iterate for reliability.
   

8. Collaborate with perception systems and product teams on robotic product features.
   

9. Write production-grade tested and documented code with strong Git workflow hygiene.
   

1. 3 years building and shipping autonomy planning or control systems for robots drones or AV/AMR systems.
   

2. 2 years integrating perception (SLAM VO BA) with navigation or planning on real robots.
   

3. 5 years Python experience and familiarity with modern C for performance-critical paths.
   

4. Experience with motion planning controllers and behavior orchestration in production environments.
   

5. Experience with 3D vision methods depth perception and point-cloud processing.
   

6. Experience deploying systems on edge robotics hardware with real-time performance constraints.
   

7. Track record of defining building and launching robotic or vision-heavy products.
   

8. Strong software fundamentals including testing diagnostics and version control.
   

9. Ability to translate research ideas into production-ready autonomous systems.
   

10. High problem-solving skills and ability to work closely with cross-functional teams.
    

1. CUDA TensorRT or PyTorch experience.
   

2. ROS 2 PX4 or MAVLink familiarity.
   

3. Mapping loop-closure or calibration experience.
   

4. Embedded application or ruggedized system experience.
   

5. UAV ground robotics or safe operations procedures.
   

Competitive base plus equity.

Email with links to shipped work and a short note on what you owned. Company name shared after the intro.

Advantra-Upstart Crew is a search program inside Advantra Consulting. We partner with early stage and high growth startups to hire the top 2% in Tech and GTM. We run end to end searches from single role headhunts to full team build outs using domain experts and a vetted network to deliver tight shortlists. We stay close to founders and candidates so the relationship lasts beyond the first hire.