Robotics Autonomy Engineer

About this position

Full-time, exempt

Reports to the CTO

Cleo Robotics builds unconventional autonomous robotic systems designed to operate in the world’s most challenging and inaccessible environments. Our mission is to deploy intelligent machines into critical environments to improve operational efficiency, reduce unplanned downtime, and keep people out of harm’s way. Our technology is used across industries including energy, oil and gas, manufacturing, public safety, and defense. We’re a growing team of experts in robotics and autonomous systems with diverse backgrounds and skills.

We value making an impact, thinking big, leading with empathy, and having fun along the way.

If you get excited about solving big problems and building robots straight from science fiction, and you thrive in a fast-paced environment, this role might be for you!

We are seeking a Robotics Autonomy Engineer to work on cutting‑edge intelligence and autonomy features for our Dronut UAV platforms. Responsibilities of the role include the development, integration, testing, and deployment of advanced artificial intelligence and autonomy algorithms which will enable Dronut to navigate in previously unknown GPS‑denied environments. You will use various sensors such as 3D LiDAR, IMU, and cameras to estimate the pose of the Dronut, and create path planning subroutines in order to accomplish a given objective or task.

• Own and advance Cleo’s autonomy stack across localization, mapping, state estimation, sensor fusion, path planning, obstacle avoidance, and mission execution
• Work across autonomy, perception, sensors, flight controls, and vehicle dynamics to solve system-level problems and optimize real-time performance
• Develop and harden visual‑inertial and LiDAR‑based SLAM, multi‑sensor fusion, sensor calibration, relocalization, drift management, and map persistence
• Develop perception and reactive autonomy for obstacle detection, free‑space understanding, dynamic replanning, and safe navigation through changing and unpredictable environments
• Build autonomous behaviors including path following, mission execution, data collection, health monitoring, fault detection, redundancy, graceful degradation, recovery, and safe return behaviors
• Take cutting‑edge robotics research and turn it into reliable product capability on compute‑constrained edge hardware
• Optimize the full stack for onboard compute: profile and tune C/C++ for real‑time performance within strict latency, memory, compute, power, and thermal budgets on embedded edge hardware
• Build and improve simulation, log replay, automated testing, regression benchmarks, telemetry, CI/CD, deployment, and fleet diagnostics to support reliable autonomy across a growing fleet and multiple hardware configurations
• Own real‑world autonomy performance through bench and field testing, flight‑log analysis, root‑cause debugging, and rapid product iteration
• Help define Cleo’s autonomy architecture and roadmap while operating with significant independence and ownership

• Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field
• Master's degree in Robotics, Autonomous Systems, Controls, or Computer Vision is a plus
• 3–5 years of professional experience developing autonomy, localization, state estimation, navigation, and/or flight software for robots, UAVs, autonomous vehicles, or similarly complex physical systems or equivalent demonstrated technical depth
• Proven experience deploying autonomy software on real robotic systems in the field, not just simulations or research prototypes
• Strong hands‑on experience with visual odometry, VIO, 3D mapping, sensor fusion, and SLAM, including EKF‑based estimation, calibration, and time synchronization.
• Practical experience with perception, obstacle detection, motion and path planning, trajectory generation or optimization, and map representations such as occupancy grids, octrees, etc
• Strong software engineering fundamentals with deep proficiency in C++ and C, and a strong proficiency in Python. Experience with flight control software or embedded systems is highly valuable
• Able to take ideas from…