Sr. Autonomy Engineer

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Archer is a leader in the next-gen aerospace sector building an end-to-end advanced air mobility platform that delivers air taxis, unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”), aviation-related physical artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions, and other technologies to customers worldwide across the commercial aerospace and defense sectors.

Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.

Note:

This role must be based onsite in the San Jose area. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

What You’ll Do:

Autonomous Algorithms & Planning:
Design, implement, and mature real-time path/motion planning, mission planning, multi-platform coordination, and onboard decision-making algorithms for single- and multi-agent systems

Data Pipelines, Logging &

Infrastructure: Architect end-to-end data pipelines for high-rate sensor logging, telemetry recording, onboard data processing, and playback to support post-flight analytics, model training, and algorithmic regression testing

Comms & Datalink Integration:
Build and optimize resilient communication protocols and networking logic over bandwidth-constrained, high-latency, or lossy datalinks to enable reliable multi-agent coordination and command/control (C2)
System Integration & Execution:
Integrate planning algorithms, data pipelines, and comms layers directly with the broader embedded onboard software stack for real-time, low-latency execution

Testing & Field Validation:
Validate complex autonomous behaviors, datalink performance, and data pipelines across software-in-the-loop (SIL), hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test rigs, and live field operations

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

Partner closely with perception, navigation, systems, and hardware teams to field robust autonomous platforms operating under real-world uncertainty

What You Need:

Education & Experience:

Advanced degree (or equivalent experience) in Engineering, Computer Science, or Robotics, or a related field, featuring direct industry experience developing and deploying autonomy algorithms on fielded systems. (Ph.D. + 2 yrs / M.S. + 6 yrs / B.S. + 8 yrs)
Languages & Embedded Execution:
Production-level C++ experience for real-time, low-latency execution on embedded platforms, alongside strong Python proficiency for rapid prototyping, analytics, and C++/Python bindings

Algorithms & Decision-Making:
Proven track record designing and deploying path/motion planning, distributed coordination, and decision-making under uncertainty on physical hardware or HIL systems

Data Processing & Logging Systems:
Hands-on experience building high-throughput data logging, serialization, recording frameworks, and processing pipelines for embedded autonomy platforms

Communications & Datalinks:
Practical experience with wireless network protocols, custom datalink interface management, and designing multi-agent communication schemes under lossy, high-latency, or limited-bandwidth conditions

Robotics Middleware:
Deep hands-on production experience with ROS 2 infrastructure, including DDS middleware configuration, QoS tuning for low-bandwidth links, and custom message definition

Bonus

Qualifications:

Fielded Multi-Agent Systems:
Experience fielding multi-agent or swarm systems on physical platforms (UAVs, AUVs, ground robotics) under tight compute, energy, and RF/datalink constraints

Adversarial/RF Environments:
Familiarity with mesh networking, tactical datalinks, or autonomous operations in…