Sr. Software Engineer, Perception

About the Role

FlightWave Aerospace, a subsidiary of Red Cat Holdings, is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead the development of perception systems powering the next generation of autonomous VTOL unmanned aircraft. This role sits at the intersection of research and production—translating cutting-edge academic literature into robust, deployable systems. You will experiment with next-generation sensors and push the boundaries of perception to enable reliable autonomy in contested and dynamic environments.

The Senior Software Engineer will be responsible for designing, prototyping, and productionizing perception systems that are both resilient and rigorously testable. This includes building capabilities such as visual-inertial odometry (VIO) for GPS-denied navigation, object detection and classification for situational awareness, multi-object tracking for dynamic environments, and sensor fusion across modalities (e.g., cameras, IMUs, thermal sensors, and event-based cameras) to achieve robust state estimation and scene understanding under real-world constraints.

FlightWave develops advanced unmanned aircraft systems for defense, public safety, and government security applications. Our platforms integrate high-performance edge compute with sophisticated robotics software to deliver autonomous mission execution in the most demanding environments.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

Perception Leadership & System Architecture

• Own the architecture and development of FlightWave’s perception stack, spanning sensing, state estimation, and scene understanding for autonomous VTOL systems.
• Lead the design and implementation of core perception capabilities, including visual-inertial odometry (VIO) for GPS-denied navigation, object detection and classification, multi-object tracking, and multi-sensor fusion across cameras, IMUs, thermal payloads, and emerging sensor modalities.
• Translate state-of-the-art research into production-ready systems, balancing performance, reliability, and computational constraints on edge hardware.
• Define perception system interfaces across autonomy, controls, and flight software to enable robust downstream decision-making.
• Drive architectural decisions around real-time processing, synchronization, and data pipelines for high-rate sensor streams.

Perception Systems Development & Validation

• Design and build perception systems that are robust to real-world challenges including low-light conditions, high dynamics, environmental noise, and adversarial or contested environments.
• Develop and maintain datasets, evaluation pipelines, and simulation environments to rigorously test perception performance across edge cases.
• Establish metrics and validation frameworks for perception accuracy, latency, and robustness across flight regimes.
• Lead efforts in flight test integration, debugging, and performance tuning of perception systems in real-world conditions.
• Collaborate closely with hardware teams to evaluate and integrate next-generation sensors.

Organizational Development & Technical Mentorship

• Help scale FlightWave’s perception and autonomy engineering capabilities as the company grows.
• Contribute to hiring and development of engineers with expertise in computer vision, state estimation, and sensor fusion.
• Promote engineering best practices for building reliable, testable, and maintainable perception systems.

Program Execution

• Partner with autonomy, controls, and systems engineering teams to deliver perception capabilities aligned with mission requirements.
• Ensure perception systems support rapid iteration during flight testing while maintaining production-level reliability.
• Contribute to development workflows, testing strategies, and deployment pipelines that support both research experimentation and operational deployment.

External Collaboration & Integration

• Work with external partners, research institutions, and vendors to evaluate and integrate third-party perception technologies where appropriate.
• Ensure externally developed perception components align with internal architecture, performance standards, and mission requirements.
• Coordinate integration of external and internal systems to accelerate development while maintaining system integrity.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of professional experience developing perception, robotics, or autonomy systems.
• Demonstrated experience taking perception systems from research or prototype to production deployment in real-world environments.
• Strong foundation in computer vision, state estimation, and sensor fusion, with hands-on experience implementing systems such as visual-inertial odometry (VIO), SLAM, object detection, and multi-object tracking.
• Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Python, with experience building real-time, performance-critical systems.
• Experience working with multi-sensor systems (e.g., cameras, IMUs, thermal sensors), including calibration, synchronization, and data fusion.
• Experience developing software tightly integrated with hardware systems, particularly in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or unmanned aircraft systems.
• Experience working with perception and robotics frameworks (e.g., ROS 2, OpenCV, GStreamer).
• Strong understanding of coordinate frames, reference transformations, and spatial reasoning across sensor, body, and world frames.

Additional Desired Qualifications

• Experience with robotics or autonomous systems software stacks (PX4, ROS2, MAVLink, etc.).
• Experience developing software for unmanned aircraft systems or aerospace platforms.
• Familiarity with edge computing platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson or Qualcomm systems.
• Experience with event-based cameras or other advanced sensing modalities.
• Background in GPS-denied navigation, low-light perception, or contested environments.
• Experience building or using simulation, replay, or evaluation pipelines for perception validation.

Physical Requirements And Working Conditions

• Must be able to walk, stand, and navigate large indoor and outdoor facilities for extended periods of time.
• Ability to lift, carry, and move materials and equipment weighing up to 25 lbs on a regular basis.
• Use of personal protective equipment (PPE) may be required in designated areas or when performing specific tasks, in accordance with safety protocols and company policy.
• May be required to climb ladders, stoop, kneel, or crouch during inspections, maintenance walk-throughs, or emergency response situations.
• Regular exposure to facility operations including noise, dust, temperature fluctuations, and industrial equipment.
• Occasional off-hours or weekend work required for emergency facility responses or projects as needed.
• Requires frequent use of a computer and other standard office equipment for documentation, communication, and coordination tasks.

Background Check

This position will require successfully completing a post-offer background check. Qualified candidates with a criminal history will be considered and are not automatically disqualified, consistent with federal and state law.

EEO and ITAR/EAR Work Authorization Disclosure

Red Cat Holdings provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This position requires direct or indirect access to hardware, software, technology or technical data controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Successful candidates for positions subject to ITAR/EAR restrictions must provide proof of U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Residence and must not require sponsorship for export-restricted work authorization.

E-Verify

The company participates E-Verify to ensure eligibility for employment and compliance with Right to Work rules.

Compensation

$132k – $183k, plus generous annual equity package and potential bonuses.

Key skills/competency

• Computer Vision
• State Estimation
• Sensor Fusion
• Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO)
• Object Detection
• Multi-Object Tracking
• C++
• Python
• Robotics Frameworks (ROS 2, OpenCV)
• Autonomous Systems