Chief Principal Engineer - Air Combat Autonomy Portfolio - Clearance Eligible - Remote
Decisive Point
Location: Remote
Time: 2 weeks ago
Responsibilities
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- Oversee the technical development of EpiSci’s Air Combat Autonomy portfolio.
- Work with the portfolio Technical Director to outline a technical product roadmap in support of program deliverables.
- Lead technical proposal writing for new projects in the portfolio.
- Perform project-specific technical decomposition, epic roadmapping, and sprint planning with project owners.
- Lead, mentor, assist, and train teams of engineers do do the following:
- Implement, leverage and improve state-of-the-art software for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that to perform tactical military missions using common autonomy loops:
- Autonomy loops such as: “Sense, Make Sense, Decide, Act (SMDA)”, “Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA)” loops., “Perceive, Decide, Act’ (PDA)” loops.
- Sense: Environment sensing and modeling, computer vision, sensor processing, classification, anomaly detection.
- Make Sense: Environment mapping, data interpretation, 3D voxel grids, GeoGrids, WGS84, aerospace coordinate systems and reference frames (north east down (NED), Geocentri & Geodetic latitudes, Earth-centered-inertial (ECI), earth centered earth fixed (ECEF)), no fly zones, keep-in/keep-out zones. Sensor fusion and target tracking, etc. Find, fix, track, target (F2T2).
- Decide: State machines, behavior trees, optimization algorithms, constraint solving, classic algorithms (A*, RRT*, DFS, BFS, Branch & Bound, Random Forests), heuristics, optimization, Kalman filters, particle filters, etc. Artificial intelligence techniques such as deep reinforcement learning, reinforcement learning, machine learning, neural networks, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, generic algorithms, Bayesian networks, fuzzy logic, etc.
- Act: Autonomous 2D & 3D UAS trajectory/motion planning, route planning, SLAM. Classical controls systems, optimal control systems, adaptive control systems, model predictive control systems, especially for integration of 3rd party UAS autopilots. Guidance, navigation, and controls (GNC)
- Collaborate with autonomy engineers to implement publish/subscribe service-oriented-architecture software for autonomous UASs.
- Build, leverage, and improve robotic autonomy software architectures that can be deployed on real systems to accomplish military missions (including publish/subscribe architectures).
- Design autonomy software in collaboration with autonomy engineers that supports full integration with aircraft autopilots, datalinks, sensors, PNT/GPS/INS, ground control stations, etc.
- Support live flight test of autonomy software on F16s, group 1-5 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
- Collaborate with 3rd party UAS vehicle vendors on the integration of EpiSci autonomy software onto OEM UAS hardware.
- Collaborate with domain experts and prior DoD warfighters (ex. DoD fighter pilots) to build software autonomy solutions for military missions.
Minimum Qualifications
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- Education Requirements:
- Master's degree or PhD in computer science/related engineering field.
- 10+ years of hands-on and leadership experience aviation and autonomous robotic systems.
- Technical Requirements:
- Experience developing decision making AI for autonomous unmanned systems
- Experience managing engineering staff and performing technical road mapping across multiple projects
- Experience with software languages: Python, C++
- Experience in one or more of the following: State Machines, Behavior Trees, Resource Allocation, Task Planning/Scheduling, Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning
- Experience with probabilistic techniques:, Bayesian Inference, Statistical Modeling
- Experience developing in Docker and containerized development environments, and using Linux-based operating systems (e.g., RHEL, Ubuntu)
- Experience using git, Visual Studio Code, GitLab.
- Experience with agile methodologies and project management.
- Additional Requirements:
- Passion for solving complex problems with little supervision in a fast-moving team.
- Ability to balance multiple priorities in a fast-paced, highly collaborative, frequently changing, and sometimes ambiguous environment.
- Excellent analytical, communication, and documentation skills with demonstrated ability to collaborate across multiple teams.
- Travel Requirements
- Must be willing to travel as projects requires. Estimated Travel 25-30%.
- Security Requirements
- (MANDATORY) Must be a U.S. Citizen.
- (MANDATORY) Must be eligible for a U.S. TOP SECRET security clearance with Special Access Program (SAP) Eligibility.
Preferred Qualifications
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- Education Requirements:
- Master's degree or PhD in computer science/related engineering field.
- 12+ years of hands-on and leadership experience aviation and autonomous robotic systems.
- Technical Requirements:
- Experience implementing autonomy on hardware and GNC design
- Experience with Probabilistic programming
- Experience working projects related to national security for one or more government agencies.
- Interdisciplinary background, with evidence of continual learning.
- Security Requirements
- (MANDATORY) Must be a U.S. Citizen.
- (MANDATORY) Must be eligible for a U.S. TOP SECRET security clearance with Special Access Program (SAP) Eligibility.
EpiSci is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We value our differences and we’re excited to learn what you can add to our team.
Don't meet every single requirement? At EpiSci, we're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workforce, so if you're excited about this role but your previous experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway! You may be the perfect candidate for this or another role at EpiSci.
