Autonomy Lead

Who we are

Neros is a defense technology company rebuilding America's drone industrial base. We design and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are tested in combat, iterated at startup speed, and built at massive scale. Our team culture is fast, hands-on, and obsessed with closing the gap between design and deployment.

As drones transform the character of warfare, Neros is delivering the systems the West needs to compete on the modern battlefield and deter the adversaries of democracy. We're hiring engineers, operators, and builders who want to move fast, take on extreme ownership, and get capability into the hands of warfighters in months, not years.

What you will be doing

As the Autonomy Lead, you will own the development of Neros' next autonomy product from the ground up. You'll lead a small, high-performing team of autonomy engineers while directly driving the software architecture and defining hardware requirements for partner teams to design around. Day-to-day, you'll be in the code - developing terminal guidance, position hold, visual navigation, and swarming capabilities across current and future Neros platforms. This is a technical leadership role: you'll set the direction, make the hard calls, and ship capability that gets into soldiers' hands.

Responsibilities

Lead the autonomy software development effort for an upcoming Neros product, owning architecture decisions end-to-end

Define hardware requirements and interface closely with hardware teams to ensure software and system design are tightly coupled

Develop and iterate on terminal guidance, position hold, visual navigation, and swarming capabilities

Hire, manage, and grow a small team of autonomy engineers - setting technical standards and maintaining a high execution bar

Write and review production-quality embedded autonomy code in C, C++, and/or Python

Operate effectively under hardware constraints, making smart tradeoffs between performance and compute/power budgets

You should have the following

3+ years proven experience leading technical work in hardware-constrained autonomy - small drones, ground robots, or similar systems strongly preferred

Hands-on depth in one or more of: computer vision, state estimation, controls, or robotics

Experience managing engineers and delivering projects end-to-end, not just contributing to them

Strong proficiency in C, C++, and/or Python in embedded or resource-constrained environments

Experience hiring for autonomy or AI roles

Nice to have

Prior work with quadcopters or other aerospace systems

Familiarity with Betaflight, ExpressLRS, or ArduPilot

US Salary Range

$190,000 - $266,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Neros' total compensation package.