Autonomy Systems Engineer

Position: Staff Autonomy Systems Engineer
Company Overview Imagine a piloted air taxi that takes off vertically, then quietly carries you and your fellow passengers over the congested city streets below, enabling you to spend more time with the people and places that matter most. At Joby, we've been working to make that dream a reality since 2009 and we're now in the final stages of certifying our aircraft with the FAA.

With plans to launch our aircraft in the US and Dubai, we're now scaling manufacturing and preparing for the launch of our commercial service.

Overview At Joby, Systems Engineers manage the end-to-end design, integration, and execution of complex aerospace systems. They are responsible for translating mission objectives into technical requirements, ensuring seamless collaboration between hardware and software teams, balancing competing constraints (cost, schedule, and performance), and validating that all parts safely achieve the mission.

The Advanced Development team is looking for a passionate Staff Autonomy Systems Engineer to join our growing team. This position provides the engineer a chance to interact with many of the key teams and disciplines across the company. You will provide technical guidance and coordination across the Autonomous Aircraft’s Systems, from early concept development through system-level V&V. The role will be involved in defining high level requirements in alignment with stakeholder objectives, targeted decomposition of requirements in high risk areas, creating technology development roadmaps to increase TRL and reduce operational risk, defining key interfaces between systems, and generating V&V plans and test cases to verify requirements and validate the design.

This position requires a solid understanding of aircraft systems, system development, and industry specific standards and processes. This position requires enough background knowledge and a willingness to learn to enable one to understand the complex trade-offs involved in the system design across the aircraft systems as a whole. The most important traits at Joby are a positive attitude towards the project, strong work ethic, and being able to self-manage and learn new skills.  

Forward thinking and the ability to adapt quickly to a fast-paced environment are a must.

Responsibilities Requirements Management:
Derive, allocate, and track technical requirements from top-level mission goals down to individual subsystems. Develop interface control documents (ICDs).System Architecture:
Define and analyze the overall system layout, develop Con Ops and evaluate their feasibility, and conduct trade studies to influence performance. Ensure all systems being developed are coordinated and balanced to function as a cohesive whole.

Verification & Validation (V&V):
Execute the V&V strategy across all systems, define and execute test plans, identify specific test cases, and collect verification data to satisfy the requirements.

Risk Management:

Identify technical risks, develop mitigation strategies, and execute plans to buy down target risks.

Technical Leadership:
Lead technical trade studies and functional analyses, define milestone success criteria, and support technical design reviews.

Technical Mentorship:
Guide and mentor junior engineers.

Required BS in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Systems Engineering, or a related field
10+ years of systems engineering experience developing safety-critical vehicles, preferably in aerospace and/or autonomy

Thorough understanding of systems engineering concepts and methods

Excellent interpersonal skills to effectively communicate with colleagues across a wide range of technical disciplines

Ability to work in a fast-paced environment

DesiredMS/PhD in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Systems Engineering, or…