Sr. Signal Processing Engineer

Spear AI is a growing defense contracting company delivering solutions that support national security. As we expand, we are building a culture where innovation meets mission-critical work. We operate with a flat organizational structure that lets every team member make an impact, work directly with leadership, and contribute to projects that matter. Whether you join our Hardware, Software, or Services division, you will work alongside people committed to excellence and to advancing the capabilities that keep the country safe.

Spear AI builds sonobuoy sensors that are deployed into the water and collect data at the edge. We also work with the U.S. Navy to collect and process their SONAR data. You will have the opportunity to work on real-world projects that directly affect warfighter capability and mission success.

Spear AI is seeking a senior signal processing engineer to develop, implement, and field the detection, estimation, and array processing algorithms at the core of our maritime sensor products. You will join an established cross-functional hardware team of mechanical, electrical, embedded software, and data processing engineers, working directly alongside our PhD acoustician. You will be in the lab and out on the water frequently, and the algorithms you write will run on hardware you helped specify.

You do not need to come from acoustics. We are looking for depth in signal processing first. If your DSP experience is in radar, RF and communications, EW, sonar, seismics, biomedical signals, speech, radio astronomy, structural health monitoring, or another domain entirely, and you are genuinely interested in moving into underwater acoustics, we want to talk to you. You will not be learning the domain alone: our staff acoustician works on these problems daily and will be your direct partner in getting up to speed on ocean acoustics and propagation physics.

Detection theory, estimation theory, and the judgment to know when an algorithm is fooling you are what we cannot teach quickly. Acoustics experience is a plus, not a filter.

You will work as part of an already formed team, collaborating closely with our acoustician, embedded software engineers, and the mechanical and electrical engineers who build the sensors your algorithms run on. You should have at least some experience in most of the following areas:

Detection and Estimation – Develop, characterize, and defend detection and estimation algorithms operating against weak signals in non-stationary, non-Gaussian noise. Quantify performance honestly, including where the algorithm fails.

Array Processing – Design and implement beamforming, spatial filtering, bearing estimation, and coherent processing across multi-element arrays. Understand the consequences of real array geometry, element mismatch, and imperfect element position knowledge.

Real-Time and Embedded Implementation – Take algorithms from prototype to deployed code with real constraints on compute, memory, and power. Work with our cross-platform DSP library, used both for real-time processing on ARM A-series processors and for traditional cloud compute.

Modeling and Simulation – Build the models and synthetic data you need to develop and stress algorithms before hardware exists, and to explain field results after it does.

Sensor and Signal Chain Definition – Contribute to the decisions upstream of your algorithms: sensor selection, array geometry, sample rates, dynamic range, anti-aliasing, timing and synchronization, and platform self-noise. Help define the requirements that flow from processing back into hardware.

Field Testing and Data Collection – Plan, support, and participate in bench and at-sea testing of algorithms and prototypes, including going to…