{"id":465227,"url":"https://alion.io/job/joby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-engineer","title":"Flight Research Navigation Software Engineer","company":{"id":176372,"name":"Joby Aviation","domain":"jobyaviation.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/joby-aviation","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"iCIMS","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":100,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":17,"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Santa Cruz, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":97600,"max":152000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":152000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"GTSAM","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-06T12:10:51Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-06","last_verified_at":"2026-11-02T05:08:25Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":56,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":56},"description":"Company Overview\nJoby Flight Research designs, develops, and flight-tests novel aircraft using a software-first autonomy approach. We build and deploy autonomy, perception, planning, and radar systems across conventional, electric, and hydrogen-electric aircraft in both CTOL and VTOL configurations.\nOverview\nJoby Aviation’s Flight Research team is looking for a driven Navigation Software Engineer to contribute to the research and development of new aircraft configurations.\nWe are a small, close-knit and agile team; the engineer will work closely with perception, controls, and autonomy engineers to develop state estimation and navigation capabilities that connect perception systems to flight control and mission management.\nThe role focuses on multi-sensor fusion, object and vehicle state estimation, and navigation architecture for new aircraft platforms. The engineer will develop algorithms and infrastructure enabling robust aircraft navigation, integrate perception outputs into the control stack, and support the development of advanced autonomy capabilities.\nThe engineer will be expected to deliver high-quality flight software, act with agency, and be capable of picking up a wide variety of tasks spanning research prototyping, production flight software, and analysis tooling.\nResponsibilities\nDevelop high-quality navigation and state estimation software (C++) for experimental VTOL and CTOL aircraft.\nDesign and implement multi-sensor fusion algorithms incorporating inertial, air data, perception, and external sensor inputs.\nDevelop and maintain navigation infrastructure including transform trees, calibration pipelines, and state estimation frameworks.\nContribute to simulation and analysis tools (C++ / Python) used to evaluate navigation performance and algorithm robustness.\nIntegrate perception outputs into downstream systems including flight controls and mission management.\nFormulate and execute test plans to demonstrate navigation accuracy, robustness, and performance.\nSupport flight testing of new aircraft.\nCollaborate closely with perception, controls, and autonomy engineers to design well-integrated navigation and estimation architectures.\nRequired\nExpert knowledge of modern state estimation methods including Kalman filtering, nonlinear filtering, or factor-graph based estimation.\n\nExperience writing real-time and safety-critical C++ flight software.\n\nDeep knowledge surrounding multi-sensor fusion systems or state estimation pipelines.\n\nExperience writing C++ and Python in a professional environment.\n\nExperience developing simulation or analysis tools for dynamic systems.\n\nExperience with real-time signal processing.\n\nThis position must meet US export control compliance requirements, therefore a candidate must qualify as a “US Person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15. “US Person” includes US Citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, or asylees.\nDesired\nExperience developing navigation systems or perception-integrated state estimators for autonomous aircraft.\nExperience with factor graph based estimation frameworks or differentiable optimization tools (e.g. Symforce, Ceres, GTSAM).\nExperience with multi-object tracking or perception-driven navigation systems.\nExperience developing flight-test experiments for quantitative evaluation of navigation or estimation performance.\nExperience with camera models, pixel measurements, or vision-based navigation systems.\nExperience with system identification and sensor calibration techniques.\nCompensation at Joby is a combination of base pay and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). The target base pay for this position is $97,600 - $152,000/yr. The compensation package will be determined by job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.\nJoby also offers a comprehensive benefits package, including paid time off, healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan with a company match, an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, and more.\nAdditional Information\nJoby Aviation is an equal opportunity employer.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4060,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Life insurance","Restricted stock units"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Transportation & Logistics","Air Transport","Military Logistics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-06T12:10:51Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":9,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.331,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":56,"expected_fill_days":17,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":152000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/joby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/joby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-02T07:22:24Z","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":10371,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-03T00:00:00Z"}},"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":176372},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=176372"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fjoby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-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%2Fjoby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-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%2Fjoby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-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/joby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fjoby-aviation-flight-research-navigation-software-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":465227}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"jobyaviation.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":465227},"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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