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Merlin · 3 hours ago

Mission Autonomy - Planning and Behaviors Lead

United States

Full-time

Remote

Senior Level

5+ years exp

Merlin Labs is a venture-backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable reduced crew and uncrewed flight. They are seeking a lead engineer to drive the technical direction for mission autonomy, focusing on decision making and behaviors for airborne systems.

Air TransportationInformation TechnologySoftwareTransportation

Growth Opportunities

No H1B

Responsibilities

Drive the technical direction and deliver autonomous decision making, behavior execution, and motion planning capabilities for airborne systems

Define the research, experiments, and development projects that support delivering mission autonomy capabilities

Identify gaps and define staffing needs to develop and deliver decision making and behavior capabilities

Ensure the decision making, behaviors, and motion planning technical plans align with short term R&D objectives, long term objectives, and the Merlin technology roadmap

Lead architecture design and perform architecture and technology trade-off analysis, accounting for short term objectives and long term goals in decision making

Step in to a hands-on software development role as needed

Support simulation, integration, and flight test activities to validate real-world performance

Collaborate across Merlin to develop novel systems to solve the toughest problems in aviation and autonomy

Qualification

Autonomous systemsDecision making algorithmsMission management frameworksSoftware development workflowsPythonC++Simulation softwareTechnical leadershipMachine learningFlight testingProposal writingAviation certification standards

Required

Degree in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics Engineering, or a related subject

Years of professional experience developing software for airborne autonomous systems

Subject matter expert in one or more of the following: Mission management frameworks such as behavior trees, hierarchical task networks, state machines, petri nets

Single- and multi-vehicle autonomy, resource allocation, and decision making algorithms

Airborne contingency and emergency management

Machine learning for complex decision making and behavior generation

Years of experience providing tech leadership to a team of at least 4 engineers at different levels

Proficiency in modern software development workflows and practices, including version control, pipelines, and unit testing, and peer review

Experience with overall product development cycle, including design, testing, and troubleshooting at the system level as well as at the software component level

Proficiency writing both Python and C++

Familiarity with simulation software, especially aircraft simulation

Experience with proposal writing and technical roadmap development