Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy Behaviors

Yoh has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy Behaviors to join our advanced technology client supporting the development and deployment of next-generation autonomous systems. This senior-level engineering role will focus on designing sophisticated autonomy capabilities for unmanned platforms operating in complex, real-world environments.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience in robotics, autonomous systems, motion planning, decision-making, and high-performance software development, with the ability to translate advanced algorithms into deployable capabilities. This is a highly technical, hands-on position that will work across software, simulation, hardware, and flight-test teams.

Title: Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy Behaviors

Location: Washington, D.C.;
Boston, MA;
San Diego, CA; or San Mateo, CA

Work Environment: Onsite

Type: Contract

Compensation: $120-170/hr DOE

Clearance: Must be eligible to obtain a U.S. Government Secret security clearance

• Design and develop advanced autonomy algorithms that enable unmanned aircraft and other robotic platforms to execute complex missions with limited human intervention.
• Build high-performance software supporting autonomous planning, decision-making, mission behaviors, and execution in dynamic operating environments.
• Develop and validate behavior architectures supporting capabilities such as multi-agent coordination, reconnaissance, tactical decision-making, survivability, and mission execution.
• Combine traditional autonomy and controls techniques with modern machine learning approaches to develop robust and adaptable autonomous behaviors.
• Apply concepts including motion planning, optimization, aircraft dynamics, trajectory generation, information fusion, and decision-making to operational autonomy challenges.
• Partner closely with perception, planning, simulation, systems, hardware, and flight-test engineering teams to integrate autonomy software onto real-world platforms.
• Use simulation environments and mission-level testing to evaluate algorithms prior to deployment and identify opportunities for performance improvement.
• Analyze system telemetry, mission logs, and test results to troubleshoot issues, identify root causes, and improve autonomy performance.
• Support integration activities, flight demonstrations, field testing, and other operational validation events.
• Research and prototype emerging autonomy technologies while contributing technical direction to future capabilities and product roadmaps.
• Adapt autonomy solutions to meet evolving program requirements, customer needs, and operational environments.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance across complex autonomy initiatives while promoting sound engineering practices and reusable technical approaches.

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical discipline; equivalent practical experience may also be considered.
• Typically 10+ years of relevant experience with a Bachelor's degree, 9+ years with a Master's degree, or 7+ years with a PhD.
• Advanced programming skills in C++ and Python.
• Experience developing software for real-time or performance-sensitive systems, including familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS).
• Significant hands-on experience with robotics or autonomous systems, particularly in areas such as motion planning, behavior modeling, autonomous decision-making, controls, or mission autonomy.
• Strong experience developing algorithms for unmanned systems, with particular emphasis on aerial platforms.
• Experience using modeling and simulation environments for autonomy development, testing, and validation; familiarity with tools such as AFSIM or NGTS is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of software integration concepts, interfaces, system architecture, and testing within complex multidisciplinary systems.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex technical issues and optimize system-level performance.
• Strong communication skills and experience collaborating across multidisciplinary engineering organizations.
• Ability to travel approximately 10–15% for integration activities, customer engagements, testing, and demonstrations.
• Must meet applicable U.S. Government requirements to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.

• Experience incorporating machine learning or reinforcement learning into autonomous systems.
• Background…