Principal Software Engineer, Perception

ABOUT THE ROLE As a principal-level engineer on the perception team at a maritime autonomy company, you will set the technical direction for systems that help autonomous vehicles understand complex ocean environments. You will combine hands-on engineering with architecture leadership, partnering closely with autonomy, navigation, and applied machine learning teams. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Define the architecture for perception capabilities including sensor fusion, localization, tracking, mapping, and uncertainty estimation. - Integrate radar, cameras, and other sensor modalities into reliable information streams for downstream autonomy systems. - Work with autonomy, navigation, and applied machine learning teams to support safe vehicle behavior in challenging ocean conditions. - Turn research algorithms into robust production systems that meet edge-compute, latency, sensor, and environmental constraints. - Guide senior engineers through architecture decisions, technical reviews, and hands-on problem solving. - Shape data-labeling strategies, ground-truth datasets, and evaluation frameworks, and contribute to hiring and mentorship as the team grows. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - At least 8 years of experience in perception or robotics engineering, with staff-level technical leadership and architecture ownership. - Direct experience building and deploying production perception systems on autonomous vehicles or robots. - Deep expertise in sensor fusion, localization, state estimation, tracking, mapping, probabilistic estimation, and uncertainty modeling. - Strong foundations in computer vision, machine learning, and applied mathematics, including linear algebra. - Experience with onboard software and running inference on constrained compute with latency requirements; familiarity with C++, Python, Nvidia Jetson, and edge computing is valuable. - Background with radar, cameras, or other sensor modalities; maritime autonomy experience is a plus. - Experience with real-time operating systems, minimal Linux distributions, battery or power constraints, or active vehicle fleets is beneficial. - Must be a US Person, meaning a US citizen or Green Card holder. Visa sponsorship or transfer is not available. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Base salary range: $300,000 to $380,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available. LOCATION Hybrid role based in Alameda, United States.