Founding Perception Engineer

Head of Robotics | Robotics & AI Recruitment Expert – Driving the future of the Robotics engineering space | Podcast Host |

FOUNDING PERCEPTION ENGINEER – AUTONOMOUS HEAVY MACHINERY

Location: On-site, San Francisco, CA, United States. Regular travel to operational sites required.

Salary: $200,000 – $300,000 with equity

NOTE: We are looking for a European candidate who is able to relocate to California, specifically.

Overview

An early-stage autonomy company is hiring a Founding Perception Engineer to lead the development of the perception stack for autonomous and remotely operated heavy machinery.

The system retrofits existing industrial vehicles and enables remote operation today, with a clear roadmap toward higher levels of autonomy.

This is a founding-level role with full ownership of perception. You define how machines understand their surroundings in some of the most challenging real-world environments.

The work is hands-on and field-driven. Success depends on robust perception under dust, vibration, glare and constant scene change.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

You will own the end-to-end perception system used for remote operation and autonomy assist on heavy equipment.

• Design and development of real-time perception pipelines for unstructured outdoor environments.
• Camera-first perception for scene understanding in dust, glare, vibration and partial occlusion.
• Multi-sensor fusion across cameras, LiDAR, GNSS and IMU.
• Calibration of sensors to maintain spatial and temporal alignment under harsh conditions.
• Real-time 3D perception and visualisation to support operator awareness and safety.
• Deployment and optimisation of perception algorithms on edge compute platforms.
• Development of data collection, evaluation and iteration pipelines.
• Field testing on live machines, followed by rapid iteration based on real-world behaviour.
• Close collaboration with hardware, tele-operation, controls and safety engineers to deliver one integrated autonomy system.

TECHNICAL SKILLSET

• Strong camera-based perception background in robotics, autonomy or ADAS.
• Experience building full perception pipelines rather than isolated models.
• Knowledge of classical vision methods alongside learning-based approaches.
• Hands-on experience with multi-sensor fusion and calibration.
• Experience deploying perception systems on edge hardware with latency constraints.
• Strong C++ and Python skills for production-grade perception systems.

PROFILE AND MINDSET

• Enjoys building complete perception systems from scratch.
• Has a track record of independent projects, research or field-deployed systems.
• Values robustness and reliability over fragile complexity.
• Is comfortable working in unstructured, unpredictable environments.
• Takes full ownership and treats the perception stack as their responsibility.
• Is willing to travel and spend time on operational sites to improve system performance.

WORKING STYLE AND EXPECTATIONS

• Founding-level pace during key build and deployment phases.
• Regular travel to customer or test sites.
• ownership and direct impact on company direction.
• Small team environment with daily interaction with leadership.
• Decisions driven by field performance and operator feedback rather than simulation alone.

COMPENSATION AND UPSIDE

• Highly competitive base salary.
• Meaningful equity allocation aligned with founding status.
• Long financial runway and strong institutional and founder backing.
• Direct influence over a perception system that defines a new autonomy category.

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Engineering, Manufacturing, and Product Management

Industries

• Construction, Robotics Engineering, and Robot Manufacturing