Software Engineer, Autonomous Systems
Job Location:
Alameda, CA - USA
Monthly Salary:
Posted:
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
Job Summary
Company: Saildrone
Location: Alameda CA (hybrid 3 days per week in office)
Compensation: $210000 - $300000 equity
Employment Type: Full-time
Visa Sponsorship: Confirm with recruiter (defense work)
Saildrone is a maritime defense company whose autonomous vessels deliver persistent wide-area intelligence in the worlds harshest environments harnessing AI advanced sensor suites and renewable power.
Founded in 2014 Saildrone has raised $300M; its Alameda waterfront HQ has direct access to the lagoon where vessels are launched and tested.
Saildrone is hiring a Software Engineer (5 years) in autonomous systems or robotics with strong C and hands-on experience shipping autonomy software on real vehicles across perception localization planning decision-making and vehicle behavior.
- Design implement and deploy production autonomy software in C onboard autonomous maritime vehicles.
- Develop algorithms for perception localization planning navigation and collision/terrain avoidance.
- Contribute to sensor fusion across radar camera and other modalities.
- Build local and global planners that use map and sensor data.
- Make practical trade-offs on constrained onboard compute (Nvidia Jetson).
- Validate behavior with simulation telemetry and real-world data building your own Python tooling.
- 5 years in autonomous systems or robotics software
- Strong C
- Shipped production autonomy algorithms on physical hardware
- Comfort across the full autonomy stack
- Autonomous driving aerospace defense or maritime experience
- ROS sensor fusion and GPU computing
C Python Nvidia Jetson ROS sensor fusion simulation Linux computer vision motion planning
REVENUE: 14% of first-year salary. Est. fee per hire $29K-$42K; 1 seat(s).
TARGET COMPANIES (suggested): Anduril Shield AI Applied Intuition Zoox Aurora Saronic Skydio.
BEST-FIT CANDIDATE: 5 yrs; C autonomy on real vehicles; perception/planning stack; robotics/AV background; visa: confirm (defense; likely US person); location: Alameda hybrid 3 days. Engaged hiring manager.
