Mission Autonomy Engineer

About the role

About Mission Autonomy

Mission autonomy transforms how robotic teams plan adapt andaccomplishobjectiveswith minimal human intervention. Forterra is pioneering mission autonomy to reduce cognitive load enable scalable multi-domain operations and preserve commander intent in the most challenging environments. Our mission autonomy drives the future of warfare by enabling new and creative capabilities.

About this job

We areseekinganEngineer to help design and build Forterras core mission autonomy capabilities. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who thrives in ambiguous problem spaces enjoys building next generation capabilities and has experience with the latest advancements in autonomous systems robot teams and artificial intelligence.

As a Mission Autonomy AI Engineer you willoperateat a system-wide level: shaping AI and autonomy architecture setting technical direction and delivering high-impact features. You will work closely with platform autonomy data networking userinterfaceand simulation teams to ensure mission autonomy integrates seamlessly across products teams and deployment environments.

This is a hands-on technical role with significant software development ownership and cross-team influence.

What youll do

• Contribute to the architecture of AI-driven mission autonomy that reduces cognitive burden on an operator scales to large numbers of heterogeneous multi-domain platforms andoperatesreliably over low-bandwidth high-latency and unreliable networks

• Design and implement AI technologies for situational awareness mission management and command and control in autonomous robot teams

• Design and implement agentic AI for multiple roles at the enterprise tacticaledgeand platform levels

• Design and implement interaction protocols for task sharing informationsharingand coalition formation in robot teams

• Collaborate with partner teams and stakeholders to ensure mission autonomy meets real-world requirements

• Contribute to long-term technical strategy roadmap planning and architectural reviews

• Document designs clearly for both engineering and integration audiences

• What Sets This Role Apart

• Youlllead projects and own subsystems

• Youllbuild software thatoperatesin real-world high-consequence environments

• Youllinfluence architecture standards and long-term technical direction and develop a core piece of Forterra infrastructure.

Minimum Qualifications

• Masters degree in Computer Science Engineering or equivalent experience

• 8 years of professionalexpertisein artificial intelligence or autonomous systems engineering

• Practical experience with agentic AI platforms (e.g.LangGraph) protocols (e.g.MCP A2A) and/or multi-agent/robot system engineering

• Expert-levelproficiencyin programming languages such as C Python and Rust

• Strong foundationin modern software development best practices including code quality scalability and maintainability standards

• Strong testing fundamentals and experience developing automated tests (unit integration regression)

• Deep familiarity with Linux-based development and deployment environments

• Proven ability to lead technical projects from concept through production

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex systems clearly

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience deploying advanced AI to cloud (e.g.AWS) and edge (e.g.NVIDIA Jetson family) platforms

• Experience building a modern AI production systems (e.g.LLM multi-modal models RAG Agentic)

• Experience in autonomy stack engineering:perception world modeling planning and decision making actuation and effects

• Experience in collaborative multi-agent/robot systems engineering

• Experience with communication management in distributed systems especially in contested environments

• Background in defense automotive robotics or safety-critical software

US Salary Range
$180000 - $250000

Location

On-Site in Clarksburg MD

10-25% travel

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience education specialized training critical expertise training and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterras overall compensation addition to base salary and equity Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options including an HSA-eligible plan with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.
• Basic Life/AD&D short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption.
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan including traditional Roth 401(k) and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

CLEARANCE ELIGIBILITY - This position may require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. For more information about U.S. Security Clearances:click here.

Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in all personnel are unique talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any factor including veteran and disability status and criminal history in accordance with applicable local state and federal laws.

Forterra is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.

To see Forterras candidate data privacy policy please visitForterra Legal Job Applicant Privacy Notice.

Required Experience:

IC