Autonomy Algorithm Engineer

InDUJUDOPDG

Apply for this position and join us in building Europe’s next generation infrastructure.

Our values are rooted in responsibility, readiness, and long term thinking. We believe sovereignty must be designed into systems from the start. Readiness is achieved through capability, not procurement. Autonomy is infrastructure, not a feature. We build with the understanding that modern systems carry long term consequences. That is why we prioritise reliability over novelty, integration over isolation, and sustained capability over short term advantage.

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Position

Role Overview

Eligibility: Candidates must be nationals of an EU member state, NATO member state, or NATO-allied

partner nation. Required due to defense/dual-use classification of projects (EU Dual-Use Regulation

2021/821, ITAR).

Develop the core state estimation, navigation, control, and mission-level autonomy algorithms enabling fully

autonomous UAV flight. Covers SLAM, Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO), Kalman filter design, GNSS-denied

navigation, and mission-level behavioral autonomy for operations in contested, GPS-degraded, and

communications-denied environments.

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Key Responsibilities

State Estimation & GNSS-Denied Navigation

• Design and implement EKF/UKF-based and factor-graph state estimators integrating IMU, GPS, vision,
  
  

barometer, and RF positioning for robust 6-DOF pose estimation.

• Develop and tune VIO and visual SLAM pipelines (ORB-SLAM3, VINS-Fusion, LIO-SAM, or custom) for
  
  

accurate localization in GPS-denied and contested environments.

• Implement resilient localization strategies that gracefully degrade and recover across sensor dropout
  
  

scenarios, including GPS jamming and spoofing conditions.

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Flight Dynamics & Trajectory Algorithms

• Develop motion prediction, trajectory estimation, and adaptive filtering for dynamic flight conditions, sensor
  
  

degradation, and environmental uncertainty.

• Create control-theoretic estimators supporting target tracking, collision avoidance, and cooperative swarm
  
  

behaviors.

• Design and validate observer/estimator architectures interfacing with flight control units (FCUs) via
  
  

MAVLink/PX4.

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Mission-Level Behavioral Autonomy

• Design mission-level autonomy behaviors: persistent ISR loitering patterns, autonomous threat-response
  
  

replanning, and return-to-safe-area protocols under sensor failure or communications blackout.

• Implement mission re-planning under uncertainty — adapting navigation and task objectives in response to
  
  

degraded sensors, emerging threats, or dynamic target assignments.

• Develop time-critical autonomous terminal guidance algorithms for precision terminal-phase operations,
  
  

including proportional/augmented navigation under high-dynamic flight conditions.

• Integrate geofencing, airspace deconfliction logic, and dynamic no-fly zone enforcement compliant with EASA
  
  

U-Space requirements.

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Integration & Validation

• Integrate state estimation modules with flight control stacks (PX4/ArduPilot) and ROS2-based autonomy
  
  

pipelines.

• Validate algorithms in simulation (Gazebo, MATLAB/Simulink, PX4 SITL) and HIL/HITL environments before
  
  

field trials.

• Analyze telemetry, measure KPIs (localization drift, convergence time, robustness to sensor failure), and
  
  

iterate improvements.

• Document algorithm designs, mathematical derivations, performance characteristics, and integration
  
  

interfaces; support certification efforts.

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Experience & Skills

Required Qualifications & Experience:

• Master's or PhD in Robotics, Control Systems, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 3+ years developing state estimation or autonomous navigation algorithms for UAVs, robotics, or autonomous
  
  

vehicles.

• Proven expertise in Kalman filter design (EKF, UKF), sensor fusion architectures, and probabilistic motion
  
  

models.

• Deep knowledge of SLAM (visual, LiDAR, or sensor-fusion variants) and visual odometry pipelines.
• Proficiency in C++ and C (Eigen, Ceres, GTSAM) and Python (NumPy, SciPy) for algorithm development.
• Applied experience with simulation tools (MATLAB/Simulink, Gazebo, PX4 SITL) and hardware-in-the-loop
  
  

testing.

• Familiarity with flight control stacks (PX4/ArduPilot) and MAVLink protocol.
• Strong mathematical foundation in linear algebra, probability theory, numerical methods, and control theory.
• Solid version control practices (Git/GitLab).
• English: Upper Intermediate or higher.
• Good communication skills and ability to cooperate with adjacent engineering teams.
• National from a NATO member country or one of the following NATO Indo-Pacific partners: Australia, Japan,
  
  

South Korea, New Zealand or Ukraine.

• Free criminal record
  
  

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Preferred Qualifications & Experience

• Proficiency in ROS2: package development, TF trees, sensor/message integration, data pipelines.
• Experience with swarm coordination, multi-agent localization, and distributed optimization algorithms.
• Familiarity with tightly-coupled VIO systems (VINS-Mono, Kimera, OpenVINS) and resilient GNSS-denied
  
  

approaches.

• Exposure to factor graph optimization libraries (GTSAM, g2o) for batch and incremental SLAM.
• Experience with RF-based positioning (UWB, pseudolite) as supplementary navigation sources.
• Experience with real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, NuttX) and hard real-time constraint design
  
  

for estimation loops.

• Familiarity with safety-critical standards: DO-178C (software levels DAL A–C), MISRA C/C++, and STANAG
  
  

4671 for UAV autonomy modules.

• Track record of publication at ICRA, IROS, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, or equivalent; open-source
  
  

contributions to SLAM/estimation projects.

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