{"id":696520,"url":"https://alion.io/job/aureliussystems-perception-engineer","title":"Perception Engineer","company":{"id":669079,"name":"Aurelius Systems","domain":"aureliussystems.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/aureliussystems","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":11,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":72,"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":130000,"max":170000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":170000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"FreeRTOS","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"OpenVINO","optional":false},{"name":"Perception","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"ROS2","optional":false},{"name":"RT-DETR","optional":false},{"name":"RTOS","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"TensorFlow","optional":false},{"name":"TensorFlow C++","optional":false},{"name":"TensorRT","optional":false},{"name":"Verilog","optional":false},{"name":"VHDL","optional":false},{"name":"YOLO","optional":false},{"name":"Quantization","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-07T02:36:36Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-07","last_verified_at":"2026-10-31T01:45:43Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":84,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":83},"description":"Who We Are:\nAurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.\nWe're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.\nOur namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate - small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.\nIn addition to our San Francisco lab, we’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.\nThe Role and Your Impact:\nWe are seeking a skilled Perception Engineer to join our software team and work on end-to-end perception and sensor-fusion stack. You will develop, train, and deploy vision and sensor based models; manage data pipelines; and enable real-time detection and tracking for our laser-based defense system. This role bridges data science, software engineering, and robotics to deliver reliable, high-throughput perception performance on edge hardware.\nWhat You'll Own:\nDesign, train, validate and fine-tune machine-learning and deep-learning models (e.g., YOLO, RT-DETR, CNNs) for object detection, classification, and segmentation.\n\nIntegrate and fuse data from multi-modal sensors (RGB, thermal, LiDAR/ToF, IMU, encoders) to produce robust, real-time Regions of Interest (ROIs).\n\nResearch, implement, and as-needed develop high and low-level image-processing techniques, such as deconvolution, low SNR detection, and motion-isolation techniques.\n\nCollaborate with hardware teams to integrate and troubleshoot sensors (global-shutter and rolling-shutter cameras, thermal imagers, LiDAR/ToF modules, IMUs) over GigE Vision, USB3 Vision, CAN, SPI, and I²C protocols; develop and debug embedded firmware in C/C++ (or Rust) for microcontrollers (STM32, NXP, TI) and FPGAs using VHDL/Verilog within RTOS environments (FreeRTOS, Zephyr).\n\nBuild scalable data ingestion, labeling, augmentation, and storage pipelines (simulated and field data) ensuring 100k+ labeled frames accuracy.\n\nOptimize inference frameworks for edge deployment (GPU/FPGA), achieving ≥500 Hz end-to-end throughput.\n\nDevelop dashboards and telemetry for drift analysis, hardware health monitoring, performance metrics, and automated retraining triggers.\n\nAuthor clear technical docs; mentor junior engineers on best practices in vision, sensor-fusion, and embedded firmware engineering.\n\nDetermines development needs by directly analyzing technical and physical limitations of our goals.\n\nWhat We're Looking For:\n2-6+ years in computer vision, sensor fusion, or robotics perception roles\n\nStrong C++ with deep ML engineering experience\n\nHands-on with ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and real-time inference engines (TensorRT, OpenVINO)\n\nComputer vision, tracking, and detection in real-time, real-world conditions\n\nFamiliarity with ROS2, Docker, and CI/CD for ML pipelines\n\nExperience with multi-sensor calibration and data synchronization\n\nWhere you probably come from: Perception roles at defense companies, autonomous vehicle programs, robotics platforms, or aerospace programs that deploy perception against real targets.\nWe want to talk if: You've shipped a perception system that ran on real hardware against real targets. You know the gap between paper SOTA and what survives field conditions.\nNot a fit if: Your background is research only without deployment, or your CV experience is offline batch processing only.\nNice to Haves:\nEdge-AI optimization (quantization, pruning)\n\nExperience with FPGA or embedded GPU platforms\n\nBackground in defense or safety-critical systems\n\nFamiliarity with cybersecurity guidelines and secure coding practices\n\nEducation:\nBS, MS, or PhD in CS, EE, Robotics, or equivalent. Track record matters more than degree.\n\nHow You Operate:\nExtreme bias for action. You ship working perception on real hardware, not slideware\n\nYou debug from first principles, not intuition alone\n\nComfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment\n\nClear communicator across software, hardware, and operator-facing surfaces\n\nSelf directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told\n\nWhy Join Aurelius Systems?\nBuild more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.\n\nCareer velocity is real. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact.\n\nWork on a problem that actually matters. Small cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer - infinite magazine, near zero cost per shot, scalable to every base, border, facility, and truck.\n\nJoin the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built.\n\nHow We Work:\nCore hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up - nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show.\nBenefits:\nCompetitive salary + equity\n\nUnited Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage\n\nFlexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days\n\nTravel to field test events and range days\n\nCovered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks\n\nE-bike / scooter stipend ( Up to $500)\n\nDirect access to leadership and real ownership over your work\n\nExport Control Notice:\nThis role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require \"U.S. Person\" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a \"U.S. Person\": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).","description_format":"text","description_chars":6039,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Air Defense","Defense Manufacturing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T02:06:34Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":29,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.651,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":84,"expected_fill_days":72,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":170000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/aureliussystems-perception-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/aureliussystems-perception-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-31T02:09:18Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":2939,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-01T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":669079},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=669079"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Faureliussystems-perception-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Faureliussystems-perception-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Faureliussystems-perception-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/aureliussystems-perception-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Faureliussystems-perception-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":696520}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"aureliussystems.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":696520},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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