Autonomous Robotics Navigation Engineer

The Guidance, Navigation, Control, and Autonomy Department of the Leidos Innovation Center develops and deploys cutting edge autonomy and alternative navigation systems for customers who can’t rely on GPS alone, and we need your help in the Rocket City (Huntsville, AL)!

In this position you’ll be working on a mix of analytical and hands-on tasks including algorithm development, analysis, simulation, and field testing of autonomous navigation systems. Your group primarily supports research and development as well as advanced prototyping for customers including DARPA, NASA, Air Force Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, and the Army CCDC Aviation and Missile Center. These customers need to get our advanced technology into the field!

You’ll be a part of more than one small team of engineers (typically 3-5) working together in spiral or agile development environments to meet aggressive customer schedules aimed at near-term field demonstrations of advanced capabilities. You’ll get to go demo your work in the field in front the customer! Are you excited about making advanced technologies work in the real world? Then we want you on our team!

Primary Responsibilities

• Perform as a seasoned technical individual contributor who develops solutions for complex autonomy and navigation projects, with an emphasis on vision aiding using EO and IR cameras
• Serve as sub-system lead for navigation development efforts with teams of 1 to 3 junior engineers. 
• Develop mathematical sensor errors models and implement navigation filters including Extended Kalman Filters and Incremental Batch Filters.
• Implement computer vision algorithms for advanced feature tracking and object detection
• Support development and integration with navigation simulations, including navigation error models and vehicle platform six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) models 
• Travel with your team to demo your system to the customer on a variety of platforms, including aircraft, ground vehicles, pedestrians, and naval ships.  Testing trips typically last for 1-2 weeks and occur 3-4 times a year.
• Support proposal development for new business opportunities, including technical solution design to meet novel requirements as well as proposal writing assignments
• Present to senior government and commercial clients for both status on current projects as well as presenting concepts for new business opportunities

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in advanced technical field (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent) with 8+ years experience performing navigation development work or Master's degree in above advanced technical domain with 6+ years experience performing and leading navigation development work or Ph.D. in above advanced technical domain.
• Programming experience with Matlab, Python, and C/C++
• 2 or more years of development experience working on sensor fusion/estimation algorithms (e.g. Kalman Filters, Particles Filters, or Factor Graphs) and computer vision algorithms (including classical and deep learned techniques).
• Strong customer interaction skills with potential to immediately lead research and development projects
• Experience working with various sensor types (Inertial Measurement Units, GPS, cameras, LiDAR, etc.)
• Experience with the Linux operating environment
• Experience using version control tools (GIT, Subversion, etc.).
• Experience writing and winning small proposals for new technical projects
• Must be a US citizen and able to be cleared to Top Secret level

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with the Robot Operating System (ROS) and the OpenCV computer vision library
• Experience with interface communication standards / protocols including RS232, RS422, TCP/IP, and UDP to communicate with various sensors
• Existing security clearance at Secret level or above

LInC

Original Posting:

March 5, 2025

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:

Pay Range $104,650.00 - $189,175.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.