{"id":1630651,"url":"https://alion.io/job/spacenexus-engineering-manager-perception-ai","title":"Engineering Manager, Perception AI","company":{"id":2086894,"name":"SpaceNexus","domain":"spacenexus.us","url":"https://alion.io/company/spacenexus","size_band":"1-10","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Schema","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":100,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":13,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Denver, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":205000,"max":315000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":315000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Edge AI","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"Synthetic Data","optional":false},{"name":"World Models","optional":false},{"name":"Agile","optional":true},{"name":"CNN","optional":true},{"name":"Knowledge Distillation","optional":true},{"name":"Localization","optional":true},{"name":"Model Distillation","optional":true},{"name":"ONNX","optional":true},{"name":"Quantization","optional":true},{"name":"Sim-to-Real","optional":true},{"name":"TensorRT","optional":true},{"name":"YOLO","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-16T22:16:50Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-16","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T05:55:24Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":30,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":30},"description":"Space is a warfighting domain. True Anomaly seeks those with the talent and ambition to build the technology that secures it.\nOUR MISSION\nTrue Anomaly delivers decisive capabilities for space superiority. We build autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, mission software, and space-based interceptors - enabling the U.S. and its Allies to secure the space environment and counter threats from the ultimate high ground.\nOUR VALUES\nBe the offset. We create asymmetric advantages with creativity and ingenuity.\nWhat would it take? We challenge assumptions to deliver ambitious results.\nIt’s the people. Our team is our competitive advantage and we are better together.\nBENEFITS & PERKS *\nBest-in-class healthcare: 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents, with HSA/HRA options\nGenerous time off: Flexible Time Off (FTO) for exempt employees, accrued PTO of up to 25 days for non-exempt employees, plus 12 paid holidays; Parental Leave; Sick Leave\nFuel for your day: Daily catered lunch and unlimited snacks for in-office employees\nAnd more: 401(k) retirement plan, fitness reimbursement, and Dog Fridays\nEquity participation: Equity is included as part of our total compensation package, giving you an opportunity to share in the company’s success.\n*Do not apply to fixed term and temporary roles\nYOUR MISSION\nBuild and lead the perception AI team that enables autonomous spacecraft operations in complex operational environments. Your team will develop world models and generative AI for photorealistic synthetic training data, multi-target tracking and sensor fusion for object discrimination, edge-deployed AI models for on-orbit operations, and camera calibration systems maintaining performance through environmental variations. You will grow the team across five work streams: world models and generative AI for synthetic video generation, multi-target tracking with clutter and decoy discrimination, signal processing and multi-sensor fusion, camera control with online auto-calibration, and edge-deployed object detection. You will define validation standards bridging synthetic data, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and operational acceptance. Your team will deliver perception AI systems that track satellites through occlusions and complex maneuvers, discriminate objects from decoys against Earth background clutter, and maintain custody for months without ground intervention. This is perception AI engineering where algorithms operate under spacecraft compute and power budgets, mistakes have operational consequences, and systems enable critical space operations.\nRESPONSIBILITIES\nTechnical Oversight & Strategic Contributions\nProvide technical direction on world model architectures for photorealistic synthetic video generation, perception AI systems combining classical computer vision with modern deep learning, and edge deployment strategies\nReview and approve technical designs for generative AI systems, multi-target tracking algorithms, sensor fusion pipelines, and model compression strategies\nLead by example, setting the standard for technical work across design, implementation, and verification (approximately 50% of time)\nDefine perception AI standards, validation approaches bridging synthetic and real-world data, and hardware-in-the-loop testing protocols\nDrive technical decisions on when to use physics-based simulation versus generative AI for synthetic data, when classical algorithms excel versus learned representations, and real-time performance trade-offs\nMaintain technical credibility in generative AI for synthetic data, computer vision, state estimation, and resource-constrained deployment\nStrategic Planning & Execution\nDefine and own the team roadmap in collaboration with perception AI leadership, balancing near-term delivery with long-term capability development across world models, multi-modal fusion, and continuous learning from operational and synthetic data\nTranslate organizational strategy into actionable team objectives aligned to defense and commercial customer missions\nPrioritize work across competing demands: photorealistic synthetic video generation, multi-target tracking with decoy discrimination, signal processing and sensor fusion, camera calibration and control, edge-deployed object detection\nManage dependencies and coordinate with flight software, hardware, autonomy, and simulation teams for successful cross-functional delivery\nTrack and communicate progress, risks, and blockers to leadership with focus on integration milestones and operational acceptance\nDrive continuous improvement in processes, tools, and workflows to increase velocity from prototype to flight-ready systems\nWork with program managers to scope projects, estimate timelines, and commit to deliverables\nTeam Leadership & People Management\nBuild, grow, and lead a team of perception and AI engineers through recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and retention\nProvide direct people management including 1-on-1s, performance reviews, goal setting, and career development\nFoster a culture of technical excellence, rigorous validation, and rapid iteration from synthetic data through simulation to flight\nDevelop individual contributors into technical leaders through mentorship and growth opportunities\nManage team dynamics, resolve conflicts, and ensure healthy team communication\nFacilitate knowledge sharing, cross-training, and documentation to build team resilience\nBridge generative AI, classical perception, and modern deep learning approaches, guiding the team on when each paradigm applies\nQUALIFICATIONS\n- Education: Master's degree in computer science, robotics, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or related technical field; Ph.D. or Bachelor's degree with equivalent professional experience also accepted\nExperience: 8+ years of experience in computer vision, robotics, autonomous systems, or perception AI engineering with at least 4-5 years in people management, leading teams of 4+ engineers\nPeople Management: Demonstrated track record of building, growing, and developing high-performing engineering teams including hiring, performance management, and career development\nLeadership: Proven ability to lead through influence, manage stakeholder expectations, drive execution in ambiguous environments, and deliver results through others\nTechnical Foundation: Strong foundation in perception AI with depth in synthetic data generation, multi-object tracking, sensor fusion, or edge AI deployment (sufficient for technical oversight and credibility)\nDomain Knowledge: Experience with resource-constrained perception AI deployment, real-time vision systems, or aerospace applications operating under strict compute, power, and thermal budgets\nCommunication: Exceptional communication skills with ability to influence senior leadership, translate between technical and non-technical audiences, and represent the team effectively\nStrategic Thinking: Translate organizational objectives into team strategy, prioritize competing demands, and balance technical excellence with delivery\nProcess & Execution: Track record defining processes, establishing team norms, and driving execution excellence in fast-paced environments\nCollaboration: Strong cross-functional collaboration with ability to build relationships, resolve conflicts, and drive consensus across autonomy, flight software, hardware, and simulation teams\nClearance: U.S. Citizen and eligible for government security clearance\nPREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE\nPrior work with synthetic data generation: generative AI for photorealistic video synthesis, rendering pipelines (Blender, Unreal), domain randomization, sim-to-real transfer\nExperience with world models and physics-based simulation: sensor phenomenology frameworks, multi-modal data synthesis\nExperience with deep learning for perception AI: object detection (YOLO, Faster R-CNN), classification, semantic segmentation, vision transformers\nDeep experience with multi-object tracking: data association algorithms (Hungarian, JPDA, MHT), Kalman filtering (EKF, UKF, IMM), track management logic\nBackground in sensor fusion: multi-modal perception AI (optical, thermal, LIDAR), time synchronization, covariance intersection, information-theoretic fusion\nExperience with edge AI deployment: model compression (quantization, pruning, distillation), ONNX/TensorRT optimization, inference on embedded systems\nBackground in classical computer vision: camera calibration, coordinate transformations, structure from motion, pose estimation\nBackground in signal processing: sensor phenomenology, radiometry, SNR analysis, adaptive filtering, multi-spectral processing\nExperience with flight software integration: safety-critical systems, deterministic execution, hardware-in-the-loop validation\nPrior work with defense or space missions: object discrimination, space situational awareness, rendezvous and proximity operations\nBackground in autonomous aerospace systems: spacecraft autonomy, UAVs, robotic systems, or defense applications\nExperience managing geographically distributed or hybrid teams through full product development lifecycles\nTrack record delivering complex, multi-quarter initiatives requiring coordination across multiple teams and hardware/software integration\nExperience with agile methodologies, sprint planning, and iterative delivery in engineering environments\nBackground partnering with product management to define requirements and prioritize features based on technical leverage\nExperience with resource planning, capacity modeling, and headcount justification\nPrior work bridging research prototypes (CVPR/ICCV/ICRA-quality) to production systems with emphasis on reliability and operational deployment\nCOMPENSATION\nBase Salary: $205,000 to $315,000\nEquity + Benefits including Health, Dental, Vision, HRA/HSA options, PTO and paid holidays, 401K, Parental Leave\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, location, and experience.\nADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS\nWork Location -Successful candidates will be located near Denver, CO or Long Beach, CA.\nWork environment -the work environment; temperature, noise level, inside or outside, or other factors that will affect the person's working conditions while performing the job.\nPhysical demands -the physical demands of the job, including bending, sitting, lifting and driving.\nThis position will be open until it is successfully filled. To submit your application, please follow the directions below.\nTo conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.\nTrue Anomaly is committed to equal employment opportunity on any basis protected by applicable state and federal laws. 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