Senior Robot Perception Engineer

Field Ai
Irvine, US
On-site

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior robotics engineers with hands-on field deployment experience who thrive in fast-moving, small teams.

Best fit for

  • PhD or MS candidates with field robotics perception experience
    — “PhD degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field or MS degree in a related field with 2+ years of industry or applied research experience
  • Engineers comfortable debugging sensor data and hardware issues
    — “Comfort working close to hardware, including debugging sensor data, calibration, and real-world failures
  • Developers who can own subsystems from design to deployment
    — “Ability to take ownership of complex subsystems, from design through field deployment and long-term maintenance

Things to consider

  • Role involves frequent field operations and customer demonstrations
    — “Support field operations and customer demonstrations by ensuring perception systems are production-ready
  • Must handle unstructured, off-road environments beyond simulation
    — “Develop robust localization and mapping capabilities that perform reliably in unstructured, off-road, and field conditions

How to stand out

  • Highlight specific field deployments where your perception systems succeeded
    — “Hands-on experience developing and deploying perception software in field robotics environments
  • Demonstrate experience with sensor fusion beyond basic LiDAR
    — “Experience with thermal, LWIR, or multispectral passive sensing for robotic perception
  • Show examples of maintaining long-term perception systems
    — “Contribute to code quality, testing, and long-term maintainability of perception systems
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • reliable perception systems
  • robust localization and mapping
  • successful field deployments
Typical background
PhD or MS in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering

Skills & requirements

Required

Robot PerceptionSLAMSensor IntegrationAlgorithm DevelopmentField Testing

Preferred

AI IntegrationEmbedded Systems

About the role

Original posting from Field Ai via Lever

Who are We?

Field AIis transforming how robots interact with the real world. We are building risk-aware, reliable, and field-ready AI systems that address the most complex challenges in robotics, unlocking the full potential of embodied intelligence. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-based architectures, and are charting a new course, with already-globally-deployed solutions delivering real-world results and rapidly improving models through real-field applications.

Learn more at https://fieldai.com.

About the Job

At FieldAI, we’re building autonomy for robots that operate in the real world, in harsh environments, and under challenging conditions where traditional sensing breaks down. We’re looking for a Senior Robotics Perception Engineer to own and advance perception capabilities for our federal autonomy programs. In this role, you will lead development of the perception stack for robots operating in unstructured terrains, taking responsibility for performance, robustness, and deployment on new platforms and sensor configurations. You’ll work hands-on across software and hardware for integrating LiDAR, RADAR and multispectral, and sensing into production autonomy systems and delivering capabilities that directly support customers.

What You Will Do

  • Build and Maintain Perception Systems

Design, implement, and maintain perception systems for autonomous robots operating in real-world environments.

Develop robust localization and mapping capabilities that perform reliably in unstructured, off-road, and field conditions.

Continuously evaluate and improve perception performance through testing, iteration, and field validation.

  • Develop and Integrate Sensor-Based Perception

Implement perception algorithms that fuse data from multiple sensors such as LiDAR, cameras, RADAR and inertial sensors. 

Support the integration of new sensing modalities and sensor configurations as robotic platforms evolve.

Ensure perception software operates reliably across simulation and real-world deployments.

  • Deploy Perception Software on Real Robots

Bring perception algorithms from development to deployment on physical robotic systems.

Debug and resolve issues discovered during on-robot testing and field operations.

Collaborate with autonomy, controls, and platform teams to ensure perception systems integrate cleanly into the full autonomy stack.

  • Improve System Robustness and Scalability

Contribute to code quality, testing, and long-term maintainability of perception systems.

Develop tools, metrics, and tests to monitor performance and catch regressions over time.

Help scale perception solutions across multiple robots, environments, and missions.

  • Collaborate Across Teams

Work closely with engineers, researchers, and operators to define perception requirements and deliver reliable solutions.

Communicate technical designs, tradeoffs, and results clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Support field operations and customer demonstrations by ensuring perception systems are production-ready.

What You Have

PhD degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field or MS degree in a related field with 2+ years of industry or applied research experience, or BS degree in a related field with 4+ years of relevant experience.

Strong background in robot perception, localization, and mapping (SLAM) for real-world robotic systems.

Hands-on experience developing and deploying perception software in field robotics environments (not just simulation).

Proficiency in modern robotics software development (C++, Python) and ROS/ROS2 based systems.

Experience working with robot perception and state estimation (VIO, LIO, mapping, sensor fusion etc).

Ability to take ownership of complex subsystems, from design through field deployment and long-term maintenance.

Comfort working close to hardware, including debugging sensor data, calibration, and real-world failures.

Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate independently in fast-moving, small teams.

The Extras That Set You Apart 

Experience with thermal, LWIR, or multispectral passive sensing for robotic perception.

Experience integrating and calibrating custom sensor rigs (e.g., stereo, thermal, or multi-LiDAR setups).

Source: Field Ai careers (Lever)

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