Perception Engineer

Description At OKSI, we believe in owning problems end to end — from first concept through final delivery. We see it through! If you're looking for a place where you can take real ownership, stretch your skills, a place to grow your career while owning meaningful, mission-driven work, this is where you belong.

OKSI is seeking a Perception Engineer to architect and implement perception, detection, tracking, and pose estimation algorithms across EO/IR, multi-spectral imagery, and other sensing modalities. The successful candidate will drive the full pipeline — from dataset curation and model development through real-time embedded deployment, simulation-based and hardware-in-the-loop testing, and integration with flight and mission software — working closely with software, hardware, and mission teams.

• Drive the architecture for image processing, object detection, tracking, and pose estimation pipelines for next-generation spacecraft and sensing platforms
• Design and implement robust perception, detection, segmentation, and tracking algorithms (CNN/Transformer-based, e.g., Retina/FCOS/DETR/Mask2D/video models) in C++ and Python
• Build and refine model architectures for EO/IR and multi-spectral imagery, driving foundation-scale datasets, training recipes, and robust generalization to long-tail and degraded conditions
• Train and fine-tune models in PyTorch, with rigorous experiment tracking and reproducible training pipelines

• Build large, diverse datasets and labeling/QA pipelines, including augmentation strategies
• Stand up training and evaluation pipelines (PR/ROC, mAP, latency, robustness suites), with continuous regression testing and model-update loops from field data
• Perform statistical analysis to support algorithm characterization and verification

• Optimize models for real-time embedded inference (quantization/pruning, TensorRT/ONNX Runtime), profiling CPU/GPU performance to meet tight throughput and latency targets on embedded (e.g., Jetson-class) hardware
• Apply model compression techniques (INT8/FP16) and dive into CUDA backends for performance optimization and debugging
• Combine vision outputs with auxiliary sensing (radar/LiDAR/RF) for confirm/deny, association, and track management using decision-level fusion

• Test and verify algorithms via software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation, using high-fidelity sensor models and real-world datasets
• Create visualization, triage, and root-cause analysis tools for rapid insight from simulation, HIL, and flight logs
• Define end-to-end test plans in coordination with hardware and flight teams
• Instrument health metrics, drift detection, and graceful degradation logic; write clear tests and documentation mapped to performance requirements
• Work with the software team to integrate algorithms into flight software

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a similar discipline (or equivalent experience)
• 2+ years of experience implementing perception and tracking algorithms deployed in real-world systems; extensive experience (7+ years) with a track record of shipping ML models to production preferred for senior-level roles
• Strong production-level C/C++ on Linux and Python for ML and tooling, with a rigorous approach to profiling, optimization, and testing
• Experience with modern detection/segmentation/tracking model architectures and training/fine-tuning in Py Torch
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multidisciplinary team and solve complex problems using first-principles approaches
• EO/IR imagery experience and experience working with real…