{"id":704058,"url":"https://alion.io/job/havocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead","title":"Vehicle Autonomy Lead","company":{"id":678606,"name":"HavocAI Inc.","domain":"havocai.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/havocai","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":9,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":36,"computed_at":"2026-11-04T06:34:25Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":175000,"max":200000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":200000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"Motion Planning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":true},{"name":"Havoc","optional":true},{"name":"MOOS-IvP","optional":true},{"name":"Path Planning","optional":true},{"name":"ROS2","optional":true},{"name":"Verification & Validation","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-23T18:14:14Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-06-23","last_verified_at":"2026-11-04T16:56:50Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":134,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":133},"description":"About Us:\nHavoc is a leader in all-domain collaborative autonomy. Its software-defined hardware approach powers military and commercial-grade autonomous systems across sea, air, and land to sense, decide, and act together in complex and contested environments. Havoc connects assets, enabling them to share information, adapt in real time, and continue operating even when communications are disrupted or denied. Havoc optimizes mission performance and minimizes human risk.\nHavoc was founded in 2024 and headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. Learn more at Havoc: All-Domain Collaborative Autonomy .\nAbout the Role\nAs the Vehicle Autonomy Team Lead, you will lead the team responsible for building, integrating, and fielding the on-vehicle autonomy stack for HavocAI’s autonomous surface vessels. This team owns the autonomy capabilities that run onboard our vessels and enable them to safely navigate, execute missions, respond to dynamic maritime environments, and operate reliably in the field.\nThis is a senior technical leadership role for someone with deep experience in robotics, autonomy software, motion planning, controls, vehicle behavior, and real-world system integration. You will lead a team of engineers from a technical perspective, set engineering priorities, guide architecture decisions, mentor teammates, and ensure that autonomy capabilities are delivered with speed, rigor, and operational reliability.\nThis role is hands-on and field-oriented. You should be comfortable moving between system design, code review, debugging logs, evaluating autonomy performance, supporting field tests, and working cross-functionally with perception, mission software, embedded systems, hardware, and operations teams.\nKey Responsibilities\nVehicle Autonomy Leadership\nLead the technical execution of the on-vehicle autonomy team\n\nOwn autonomy capabilities that run onboard autonomous surface vessels, including navigation, planning, control, behaviors, safety logic, and autonomy execution\n\nDefine technical priorities, architecture, interfaces, and development standards for vehicle autonomy systems\n\nGuide autonomy design decisions across reliability, latency, safety, compute constraints, mission performance, and field maintainability\n\nEnsure the vehicle autonomy stack is robust, observable, testable, and ready for real-world maritime operations\n\nTeam Leadership & Technical Mentorship\nLead, mentor, and support a team of autonomy, robotics, planning, and controls engineers\n\nProvide technical guidance through design reviews, architecture reviews, code reviews, test planning, and field-readiness reviews\n\nHelp engineers break down complex autonomy problems into executable technical work\n\nEstablish strong engineering practices for autonomy development, integration, simulation, testing, and deployment\n\nCreate a team culture built on ownership, technical excellence, mission focus, and fast iteration\n\nIntegration, Testing & Field Deployment\nDrive autonomy capabilities from concept through implementation, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, field testing, and deployment\n\nSupport vessel integration, field tests, customer demonstrations, and operational evaluations\n\nDiagnose and resolve autonomy issues using logs, telemetry, vehicle data, simulation results, and field observations\n\nBuild feedback loops between field failures, autonomy improvements, and product roadmap decisions\n\nEnsure the team delivers autonomy software that can be operated, debugged, and maintained in real mission environments\n\nCross-Functional Collaboration\nWork closely with perception, mission software, embedded systems, hardware, product, program, and field operations teams\n\nTranslate mission needs and product requirements into vehicle autonomy capabilities\n\nCoordinate interfaces between onboard autonomy, mission planning, command and control, sensors, and platform systems\n\nCommunicate technical risks, tradeoffs, and progress clearly to engineering and company leadership\n\nHelp align vehicle autonomy development with customer needs, deployment timelines, and long-term product strategy\n\nQualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field\n\n8+ years of experience in robotics, autonomy, autonomous vehicles, unmanned systems, maritime autonomy, aerospace, defense technology, or related technical fields\n\nStrong technical background in vehicle autonomy, motion planning, controls, robotics software, and autonomous system integration\n\nProven experience leading engineers from a technical perspective, either as a team lead, technical lead, staff engineer, principal engineer, or engineering manager\n\nExperience building and deploying autonomy software on real robotic or autonomous systems\n\nStrong understanding of autonomy software stacks, including planning, control, behaviors, state estimation, sensor integration, simulation, testing, and deployment\n\nExperience working in Linux-based development environments with modern software engineering practices\n\nStrong programming skills in C++ and/or Python\n\nAbility to make sound technical tradeoffs across reliability, safety, performance, maintainability, and schedule\n\nStrong debugging skills across software, hardware, sensors, logs, telemetry, and field operations\n\nExcellent communication skills and ability to align technical and non-technical stakeholders\n\nHigh ownership, strong judgment, and comfort operating in fast-moving, ambiguous environments\n\nPassion for mission-critical autonomy and real-world robotic systems\n\nU.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance\n\nPreferred Skills\nExperience with autonomous surface vessels, maritime autonomy, naval systems, unmanned boats, or maritime domain awareness\n\nExperience with collision avoidance, COLREGs-aware planning, path planning, trajectory generation, behavior planning, guidance, navigation, or control systems\n\nExperience with multi-agent autonomy, collaborative autonomy, distributed robotic systems, or coordinated vehicle behaviors\n\nExperience with ROS2, DDS, MOOS-IvP, autonomy middleware, or distributed robotics architectures\n\nExperience integrating perception, radar, EO/IR cameras, AIS, GPS/INS, or other maritime sensor modalities into autonomy systems\n\nExperience with simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, autonomy verification and validation, and field test programs\n\nExperience supporting government, DoD, defense, or dual-use technology programs\n\nExperience operating in startup or fast-moving product engineering environments\n\nActive or prior security clearance\n\nLocation\nThis role may be based remotely, with preference for candidates located in or willing to work from Boston, MA or Rhode Island. Candidates should be comfortable with regular travel for onsite collaboration, vessel integration, field testing, customer demonstrations, program reviews, and deployments.\nBenefits:\n100% Employer paid Health Insurance\n\nDental and Vision Insurance for you and your families\n\nLife Insurance (Employer Paid)\n\nAbility to participate in the companies 401k program (Matching)\n\nUnlimited PTO policy with an enforced 2 week minimum\n\nEquity Package\n\nWork / Home Office Stipend\n\nGlobal Entry\n\n16 Week Paid Parental Leave\n\nMonthly Health and Wellness Stipend\n\nOur Values:\nInnovation: We are driven to break new ground. Every day presents an opportunity to challenge the status quo, think boldly, and deliver advanced solutions that transform the future of defense technology.\n\nIntegrity: We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards, ensuring transparency, accountability, and trust in all our actions and partnerships.\n\nMission-Driven: We are focused on achieving impactful outcomes that align with our core mission-protecting lives through innovation.\n\nForward-Leaning: We continuously seek out new opportunities and remain at the forefront of technological advancements. We embrace change and anticipate the challenges of tomorrow with confidence and creativity.\n\nOwnership of All Tasks: At HavocAI, no problem is too complex or too trivial. We believe that greatness comes from tackling the hardest challenges, but also in handling the smallest, sometimes thankless, tasks with the same level of commitment and care.\n\nServant Leadership: We lead by serving others, whether it’s supporting our employees, partners, or the broader community. Empowering those around us is key to achieving long-term success and making a lasting impact.\n\nHavocAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8867,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity","Health insurance","Home office","Life insurance","Parental leave","Unlimited PTO","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Underwater & Marine Robotics","Military & Tactical Robotics","Defense AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T03:29:21Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":222500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":16,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.558,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":133,"expected_fill_days":36,"reasons":["conf:3","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-04T06:34:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":200000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/havocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/havocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-04T19:53:07Z","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":30598,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-05T00:00:00Z"}},"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":678606},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=678606"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fhavocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead"},{"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%2Fhavocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead"},{"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%2Fhavocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead"},{"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/havocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fhavocai-vehicle-autonomy-lead"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":704058}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"havocai.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":704058},"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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