{"id":832313,"url":"https://alion.io/job/rendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation","title":"Senior Perception Engineer","company":{"id":686549,"name":"Rendezvous Robotics","domain":"rendezvousrobotics.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/rendezvousrobotics","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":20,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":127,"computed_at":"2026-11-05T05:54:30Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Golden, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":145000,"max":null,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":145000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Localization","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":true},{"name":"Git","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-23T16:24:47Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-27","last_verified_at":"2026-11-05T10:28:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":134,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":134},"description":"Today, everything we send to space is constrained by what fits inside a rocket fairing. That's a fundamental bottleneck to building more capable spacecraft. Rendezvous Robotics is solving this problem with electromagnetic self-assembling tiles: modular spacecraft components that rendezvous, dock, and latch to assemble bigger and more powerful spacecraft than anything that can be folded to fit into a rocket.\nWe're a small team based in Golden, Colorado, executing on a clear path from flight demonstration to our first operational systems. Our work spans hardware, software, and systems engineering. We are looking for the best people in the world who want to build the next generation of advanced spacecraft.\nSenior Perception Engineer\nSuccessful electromagnetic docking requires complete autonomy due to fast and unstable electromagnetic dynamics; the timescales are far beyond the bandwidth of a human operator. As a Senior Perception Engineer, you will lead the design and development of the tile’s relative navigation stack: a set of algorithms and sensors that allow tiles to determine their pose and position within the swarm to a very high degree of accuracy. This is a critical capability that enables autonomous electromagnetic docking.\nYou will own the vision system that detects and tracks neighboring tiles. You will develop sensor fusion solutions that allow the docking controller to remain robust through the capture envelope, from first acquisition to contact. You will carry the development from prototypes to flight: define the sensor-suite and interface requirements, build calibration, simulation, and test infrastructure, implement and verify algorithms on the ground and in orbit, define metrics and dashboards to track system performance, and resolve on-orbit anomalies. You will work alongside a small team of GNC, flight software, and avionics engineers to build capabilities for next-generation self-assembling satellites. If you are energized by solving hard problems, then this role is for you.\nResponsibilities\nOwn relative navigation for proximity operations and docking end to end: perception, sensor fusion, and the estimator that feeds the control loop\nTake the tile vision system to flight: detection, calibration, pose estimation, outlier rejection, and robust performance across range, environment, and relative motion\nDesign, implement, tune, and verify the relative-state estimator (EKF, MEKF, UKF, etc) that fuses vision with the other relative sensors, including the handoff between sensors as range closes\nDerive measurement models from first principles for each sensor in the relative-navigation suite\nDefine and own the navigation accuracy budget as a function of range and the sensor-suite and interface requirements (rate, latency, covariance, dropout) that meet it\nBuild the calibration and ground-truth infrastructure that lets perception performance be measured on the bench and carried into simulation\nVerify performance and robustness with hardware-in-the-loop experiments, using statistical consistency tests\nImplement perception and navigation algorithms in onboard flight software in C++ and develop the supporting simulations, tools, and dashboards in Python\nSupport flight operations, monitor on-orbit navigation health, and lead on-orbit anomaly investigations\nBasic Qualifications\nBachelor's degree in aerospace/electrical engineering, physics, mathematics, computer science, or other relevant engineering discipline\nSoftware development experience in C++ and Python\nHands-on experience delivering camera-based pose estimation or multi-sensor fusion on a real robotic or space system\nPreferred Qualifications\nMaster's or PhD in robotics, computer vision, or an engineering discipline, or 5+ years of professional perception, state-estimation, or GNC experience\nExpertise in computer vision for metric pose: camera models and calibration, fiducial or feature-based pose estimation, multi-view geometry, and image processing on embedded compute\nExpertise in sequential estimation: Kalman filtering, residual editing, filter tuning, covariance analysis and realism, consider parameters, and consistency testing (NIS/NEES, chi-squared)\nExperience fusing asynchronous, latent, dropout-prone measurements from heterogeneous sensors, including time synchronization and attitude representation on SO(3)\nProficiency in sensor handling: measurement modeling, debiasing, calibration, and characterization on the bench\nFamiliarity with embedded software development and real-time constraints\nUnderstanding of electromagnetic systems, orbital mechanics, and proximity-operations dynamics is a plus\nProven ability to develop, test, and deploy algorithms for real-world space or robotic applications, with proficiency in Git\nCapable of identifying and solving complex problems with little to no supervision in a fast-paced start-up environment\nPassionate about solving hard problems, building things, and advancing the space industry\nExcellent written and verbal communication skills\nCompensation and Benefits\nBase salary range: $145,000.00 - $190,000.00\nYour actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience. In addition to the base salary, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options. You will receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, short- and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and paid parental leave. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. \nITAR Requirements\nTo conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here. \nEqual Opportunity\nRendezvous Robotics is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Rendezvous Robotics is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6484,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Life insurance","Parental leave","Stock options"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Satellite Manufacturing","Space Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-12T17:11:35Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":36,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.817,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":134,"expected_fill_days":127,"reasons":["conf:0","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-05T05:54:30Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":145000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/rendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/rendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-05T13:22:12Z","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":17289,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-06T00:00:00Z"}},"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":686549},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=686549"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Frendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation"},{"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%2Frendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation"},{"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%2Frendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation"},{"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/rendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Frendezvousrobotics-senior-gnc-engineer-navigation"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":832313}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"rendezvousrobotics.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":832313},"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. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}