Senior Autonomy Engineer - State Estimation Lead
hace 23 días
Arvada
Job DescriptionSalary: 137k-180k Are you passionate about shaping the future of humanity's presence in space? Lunar Outpost, a trailblazer in space robotics, invites you to join our team! Lunar Outpost is dedicated to creating a sustainable presence in space, while also driving positive impacts here on Earth. We areseeking a talented, experienced Senior Autonomy Engineer - State Estimation Lead. Asthe lead of ourState EstimationTeam, you will play a pivotal role in developingcutting-edgeautonomous navigation and control systems for our lunarrovers. Working at the intersection of autonomy, robotics, and space exploration, youwillberesponsible for the architecture, development, and verification of the vehicle state estimation stack, including local state filters, global localization methods, and lunar surface state measurement solutions.This role provides technical leadership for a critical subsystem that underpins mobility, autonomy, safety, and mission operations.Collaborating with cross-disciplinary engineering teams,you'llbring yourexpertiseto solve complex challenges and drive the innovation needed to explore new frontiersin space. Key Responsibilities: • Own the end-to-end state estimation architecture for robotic platforms, spanning local state propagation, global localization, outlier rejection, and external measurement integration, • Lead the design, implementation, and validation of state filters, including extended Kalmanfilters, factor-graph optimization, and related probabilistic estimators, • Develop andmaintainbothglobaland relativelocalization solutions, • Fusestatemeasurementsfrom onboard and externalsourcesand infer dynamic constraints on state fromsources such asterrainfeatures, vehicle health signals, • Define estimator interfaces, data products, timing requirements, and covariance conventions for downstream consumers, including planning, control, fault management, and mission operations, • Establish estimator performance requirements, observability analyses, consistency checks, and failure detection strategies, • Lead offlineanalysis and field validation of estimation performance across representative operational scenarios, • Guide sensor fusion strategies in collaboration with sensor and systems engineering teams, including calibration, latency handling, and fault tolerance, • Support anomaly investigation, estimator tuning, and root-cause analysis during integration and field operations, • Conduct field tests and simulations tovalidateand refile algorithms and softwaresystems, • Ensuresoftware systems adhere to industry standards for safety, reliability, and performance in space exploration contexts, • Mentor junior engineers and promote a culture of technical excellence and innovation within theteam, • Stay at the forefront of autonomy and robotics technology, incorporating the latest advancements into our projects Required Qualifications: • Experience in research and development ofperceptionand localization in unstructured environments, • Bachelors degreeor higherinComputer Science, Robotic Engineering, or related field, • A minimum of5years of relevant professional experiencein developingstate estimation systems for robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, or similar domains, • Demonstratedexpertise with probabilistic state estimation techniques, including EKF, UKF, factor graphs, or smoothing-based methods, • Experience with global localization or map-referenced estimation techniques, such as terrain matching, image-based localization, or absolute navigation methods, • Strong foundationin estimation theory, uncertainty propagation, observability, andappliedfiltering, • Expertisein programming languages such as C++, Python, and familiarity with ROS (Robot Operating System), • Experience leading technical direction or mentoring engineers on complex algorithmic systems, • U.S. Person Preferred Qualifications: • Background inGPS-deniednavigation, planetary robotics, or operation in GPS-denied environments, • Experience integrating estimation with control systems, planners, or fault management frameworks, • Experience with photoclinometry, or terrainrelativenavigation, • Familiarity with simulation and validation tools for estimation performance analysis, • Experience with long-duration autonomy, delayed updates, or intermittent absolute measurements, • Graduate degree in robotics, aerospace, applied mathematics, ora related discipline, • Demonstrated ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and communicate effectively across different engineering domains Any offer of employment for this position is conditional upon Lunar Outpost receiving the LTVS Phase II contract from NASA. If the contract is not awarded to Lunar Outpost, this offer will be considered null and void, without further obligation to Lunar Outpost. Lunar Outpost is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against protected characteristics (gender, age, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, disability, veteran status). We want all employees (including executives and HR) to treat others with respect and professionalism.