Rover Navigation​/Localization Engineer

Rover Navigation/Localization Engineer

Department: Software Engineering

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Hawthorne, California

Reporting To: Denise Brown

Compensation: $132,000 - $209,000 / year

Venturi Astrolab, Inc. (Astrolab) is pioneering new ways to explore and operate on distant planetary bodies. We are singularly focused on designing, building, and operating a fleet of multi-purpose commercial planetary rovers to extend and enhance humanity’s presence in the solar system. We are seeking motivated, creative, and exceptional people to join our world‑class team. The rover navigation/localization engineer will be responsible for the design, analysis, development, tuning, verification, and validation of localization solutions for Astrolab’s rovers.

Astrolab’s localization solutions utilize inputs from multiple types of sensors (e.g. IMU, star tracker, Lidar, cameras) to estimate vehicle state while also tolerating real world conditions such as data dropouts, invalid data, transmission latencies, and similar. The rover navigation/localization engineer will be creating localization solutions that function reliably under real world conditions.

• 7+ years designing, developing, and testing real world navigation/localization systems for rovers or GPS‑denied navigation systems for terrestrial wheeled vehicles
• Significant experience with odometry based on multiple sensors (e.g. IMU, wheel resolvers, LIDAR, cameras, etc.)
• Significant experience designing, tuning, developing, analyzing, and verifying Kalman filters, particle filters, or similar for wheeled vehicle navigation/localization
• Strong familiarity with equations of motion for wheeled vehicles operating on challenging terrain
• Experience with practical application of visual odometry algorithms
• Significant experience dealing with real world issues that affect navigation/localization system design and performance, such as invalid data, dropped packets, data latencies, blurry images, and similar
• Experience supporting a navigation/localization system through the entire lifecycle, from early design through live vehicle operations
• Strong C++ and Python coding skills
• Experience developing the tool suite

• 7+ years designing, developing, and testing real world navigation/localization systems for rovers or GPS‑denied navigation systems for terrestrial wheeled vehicles
• Significant experience with odometry based on multiple sensors (e.g. IMU, wheel resolvers, LIDAR, cameras, etc.)
• Significant experience with extraterrestrial rover navigation systems
• Significant experience with GNC sensors and their behaviors, such as IMU, star tracker, LIDAR, cameras, etc.

• Join a team of best‑in‑class engineers building the foundation of planetary surface exploration
• Equity ownership in the company
• Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health support
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Flexible PTO and parental leave
• Home office set up reimbursement
• Weekly lunch stipend, plus complimentary snacks and beverages on‑site
• Once a month social hour on‑site with food and drinks