Pivotal Systems

Autonomy Engineer II - Robotics

Palo Alto, CA or Miami, Florida · Mid

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 41 days ago

C++MATLABAlgorithmsCI/CDLinuxRoboticsMechanical DesignAerospace EngineeringElectrical EngineeringSensorsSimulinkFirewallCommunication

About the role

The Autonomy team develops advanced autonomous capabilities for our aerial platforms, enabling safe and intelligent mission execution from takeoff to landing. We are seeking an Autonomy Robotics Engineer to design, develop, and deploy navigation, planning, and decision-making systems that operate reliably in dynamic and uncertain environments.
You will collaborate with perception, GNC, flight software, and hardware teams across the full autonomy stack - from simulation and algorithm development to flight testing and deployment on operational aircraft.
The ideal candidate combines strong robotics fundamentals with hands-on experience building and deploying autonomous systems on real-world robotic platforms. Experience with autonomous drones, PX4, and eVTOL aircraft is highly desirable.

Design and develop autonomous navigation and mission planning systems for aerial robotic platforms.
Develop trajectory generation, path planning, and obstacle avoidance algorithms for dynamic environments.
Implement behavior planning, mission management, and autonomous decision-making frameworks.
Develop autonomous capabilities for waypoint navigation, target tracking, landing, and mission execution.
Develop production-quality software for autonomous robotic systems.
Implement autonomy algorithms in real-time embedded and Linux-based environments.
Optimize autonomy software for performance, reliability, and deployment on resource-constrained platforms.
Support hardware bring-up, system integration, and debugging activities.

Bachelor's degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
Strong proficiency in C++ and Python.
Strong understanding of motion planning, path planning, and autonomous decision-making algorithms.
Experience with robotics middleware such as ROS or ROS2.
Experience with simulation and testing frameworks for autonomous systems.
Experience with MATLAB and Simulink for algorithm development, modeling, and simulation.
Experience with autonomous drones, PX4, and eVTOL aircraft is highly desirable.

Master's degree or PhD in Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
Experience with autonomous aircraft, UAVs, drones, or eVTOL systems.
Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, or similar autopilot frameworks.
Knowledge of state estimation, localization, SLAM, and sensor fusion techniques.
Experience with trajectory optimization, model predictive control (MPC), or advanced planning algorithms.
Experience with NVIDIA Jetson, embedded Linux systems, or edge computing platforms.
Familiarity with Gazebo, Isaac Sim, AirSim, or other robotics simulation environments.
Experience supporting flight testing and operational deployments.

This listing is sourced directly from Pivotal Systems's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.