Autonomy Senior Robotics Engineer

Autonomy Senior Robotics Engineer

Job Locations US-CA-Santa Cruz | US-CA-Concord

ID 2026-5423 Category Flight Research Type Regular Full-Time

Company Overview Joby Advanced Development designs, develops, and flight-tests novel aircraft using a software-first autonomy approach. We build and deploy autonomy, perception, planning, and radar systems across conventional, electric, and hydrogen-electric aircraft in both CTOL and VTOL configurations.

Overview Joby Advanced Development is seeking an Autonomy Senior Robotics Engineer, to design and build the AI robotics software for our Superpilot™ autonomy stack. This position offers a unique opportunity to invent and build the algorithms and systems that power Joby’s varied fleet of autonomous aircraft. In this role, you will design and develop solutions for aircraft autonomy involving perception, navigation, and simulation. You will work closely with other software engineers and AI experts in computer vision, machine learning, and robotics. The role requires deep expertise with robotics algorithms, hands-on software engineering, and autonomous systems industry experience. You will design and develop robust perception and navigation software for autonomous flight. Further, you will also build software systems for simulation, mapping, and advanced sensing with cameras, lidars, and radar. Your work will help teams deploy state-of-the-art AI algorithms and systems for autonomous flight on multiple types of aircraft. We are a small, high-impact team that values curiosity, technical initiative, and the ability to operate independently. You will collaborate deeply with sensing, controls, and flight software engineers to build a foundation that accelerates our path to safe, autonomous flight. The right candidate is a strong autonomy robotics engineer who cares deeply about system design, software engineering, and enabling fast, safe iteration across multiple aircraft programs.

Responsibilities

• Autonomy Robotics Software Development • Design and implement algorithms for perception and navigation on autonomous aircraft

• Design and implement core algorithms for sensor fusion, state estimation, and calibration

• Contribute to software engineering work on the autonomy stack involving integration, analysis, and simulation

• Autonomy Technical Solutions • Optimize and tune real-time AI perception and navigation algorithms for autonomous aircraft

• Contribute to autonomy modeling, simulation, and analysis software tooling

• Collaborate closely with the rest of the Superpilot™ team to ideate, plan and execute on high-quality, well-integrated solutions and features

• Monitor system health and performance, proactively addressing issues and providing user support

Required

• Degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, or related field

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering

• Experience in developing software and systems for autonomous vehicles

• Strong proficiency in C++ and python

• Expert knowledge in perception and navigation for autonomous systems

• Deep understanding of 3D computer vision and machine learning for images

• Ability to invent and implement technical solutions in autonomy software

• Proven ability to document complex technical designs, architectural trade-offs, and implementation roadmaps

• Champion of software best practices, including rigorous code reviews and mentorship

• Excellent communication skills for collaborating with cross-functional teams

This position must meet US export control compliance requirements, therefore a candidate must qualify as a “US Person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15. “US Person” includes US Citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, or asylees.

Desired

• Expert-level software engineering: deep expertise in architecting and writing clean, scalable, and maintainable code
• Professional software development experience with multi-disciplinary teams in aerospace autonomy
• Expertise in processing aircraft sensors data such as GPS, inertial, ADS-B, air data, radio data
• Experience in ROS2 or related middleware and DDS systems
• Experience writing real-time and safety-critical C++ software.

Compensation at Joby is a combination of base pay and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). The target base pay for this position is $176,700 - $257,200/yr. The compensation package will be determined by job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Joby also offers a comprehensive benefits package, including paid time off, healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan with a company match, an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, and more.

Additional Information Joby Aviation is an equal opportunity employer.

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