Staff Software Engineer, Localization

Aerovect
New York City - +6 more
RemoteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Candidates with robotics or autonomous vehicle experience and strong multi-sensor fusion skills will find this technical leadership role in localization and mapping.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 8+ years in robotics or autonomous vehicles and proven leadership in state estimation systems
    — “8+ years in robotics or autonomous vehicles, with a track record of owning localization or state-estimation systems through production deployment on real hardware”
  • Individuals with expertise in non-linear optimization and filtering frameworks for real-time systems
    — “Strong command of non-linear optimization (Ceres, GTSAM, g2o) and/or filtering (EKF, UKF)”
  • Professionals who can design safety-critical monitoring systems for autonomous operations
    — “Help design and build online validation that monitors localization integrity and cross-sensor consistency during live missions”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with deploying localization systems to real-world hardware in your resume and interviews
    — “Take ownership of one or more core areas of the localization stack ... on real hardware at active airports”
  • Emphasize your ability to lead technical direction and resolve complex estimation challenges
    — “Demonstrated technical leadership - driving architecture across teams, setting direction, and being the person others escalate to on hard estimation problems”
  • Showcase your hands-on work with multi-sensor fusion and factor graphs in your portfolio or interview narrative
    — “Experience with factor graphs, graph-based SLAM, or open-source tools like GLIM, LIO-SAM, Cartographer, Kalibr, Ceres, GTSAM”
  • Demonstrate understanding of how calibration errors impact safety cases during interviews
    — “Understanding of how calibration quality propagates through localization and perception, and how localization errors propagate into the safety case”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

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

What success looks like

  • owning core areas of the localization stack
  • deploying and testing localization changes
Typical background
8+ years in robotics or autonomous vehicles

Skills & requirements

Required

Localization Stack OwnershipMulti-sensor FusionState EstimationNon-linear OptimizationC++

Preferred

Factor GraphsGraph-based SLAMSafety Monitoring Architecture

Stack & domain

C++LinuxROSROS2LeadershipProblem-solvingTeamworkAutonomousLocalizationMapping

About the role

Original posting from Aerovect via Ashby

WHO WE ARE

AeroVect is transforming ground handling with autonomy, redefining how airlines and ground service providers around the globe run day-to-day operations. We are a Series A company backed by top-tier venture capital investors in aviation and autonomous driving. Our customers include some of the world’s largest airlines and ground handling providers. For more information, visit www.aerovect.com http://www.aerovect.com.

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join the Localization team and own significant parts of our localization, mapping, and calibration stack as we scale autonomous ground operations across major airports. You'll take deep ownership of specific workstreams, contribute to the team's technical direction, and partner across the perception, planning, and platform interfaces to help drive the autonomous system from supervised operation to driverless. You'll work alongside the team's senior localization engineers.

You Will

  • Take ownership of one or more core areas of the localization stack (LiDAR-inertial-GNSS state estimation, 3D mapping and map maintenance, or sensor calibration) and drive it to production reliability on real hardware at active airports
  • Contribute across the broader localization and mapping pipeline from sensor integration, performance tuning, regression testing, and deployment to new operating environments
  • Help design and build online validation that monitors localization integrity and cross-sensor consistency during live missions, detects drift, and integrates with the vehicle's safety architecture
  • Develop tooling for diagnostics, health logging, and post-mission analysis across the stack
  • Contribute to the regression, validation, and release-gating approach for localization changes deployed to active airports
  • Deploy, test, and iterate using data from real autonomous operations

You Have

  • 8+ years in robotics or autonomous vehicles, with a track record of owning localization or state-estimation systems through production deployment on real hardware
  • Deep practical grounding in multi-sensor fusion and state estimation across LiDAR, IMU, GNSS, and cameras
  • Demonstrated technical leadership - driving architecture across teams, setting direction, and being the person others escalate to on hard estimation problems
  • Strong command of non-linear optimization (Ceres, GTSAM, g2o) and/or filtering (EKF, UKF), with the judgment to know when each applies
  • Strong modern C++ (C++17+) and deep working experience with Linux and ROS/ROS2
  • Understanding of how calibration quality propagates through localization and perception, and how localization errors propagate into the safety case
  • BS or MS in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, or a related field

We Prefer

  • MS or PhD with a focus on localization, state estimation, or calibration
  • Hands-on experience with multi-sensor calibration - intrinsic, extrinsic, and temporal
  • Experience with factor graphs, graph-based SLAM, or open-source tools like GLIM, LIO-SAM, Cartographer, Kalibr, Ceres, GTSAM
  • Experience building online/runtime monitoring and defining safety-relevant thresholds within a safety monitoring architecture
  • Track record of taking an autonomous system toward driverless operation

Source: Aerovect careers (Ashby)

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