Senior UAV / Robotics Integration Field Engineer - Software
Full-time
Maryland, USA · Munich, Germany
🚀 Join SE3 Labs as Senior UAV / Robotics Integration Field Engineer - Software
Be the person who makes advanced autonomous systems work in the real world. Move across the full stack: drones, sensors, calibration, autonomy software, perception, networking, payloads, field operations, and partner environments. When the system is not mission-ready, you create clarity, find the root cause, and help make it robust.
About SE3
SE3 Labs is building Spatial AI by combining 3D computer vision with large language models. We believe the ability to reason about and act within physical space is foundational to unlocking the next generation of automation, from construction to smart infrastructure, and ultimately, defence.
Now, we’re bringing Spatial AI into the sky through high-performance UAVs that can perceive, localize, coordinate, and act in the real world. This requires more than strong algorithms and good hardware. It requires systems that can be configured, calibrated, tested, deployed, demonstrated, debugged, and improved under real field conditions.
We’re looking for a hands-on engineer who wants to work close to the product, close to the field, and close to the full autonomy stack. Someone who is not limited to one layer, but follows the problem wherever it leads.
About the Role
As Senior UAV / Robotics Integration Field Engineer - Software, you own the last mile between SE3's software team and real-world use. You bring our navigation and perception stack onto UAVs, payloads, and onboard compute, connect it to flight controllers, radios, ground stations, and operator tools, and make the result ready to fly, test, demonstrate, and deploy.
This is a highly hands-on field engineering role with a software core. You work directly with other startups, prime contractors, and military end users, turning their platforms and requirements into working integrations of our software. When something is not working, you go where the evidence leads: analyse a flight log and a rosbag side by side, trace a timing issue between camera and IMU, check a calibration, debug a MAVLink bridge, fix a Docker or network configuration, adapt an autonomy behavior, improve a deployment script, or bring a clean reproduction back to the perception and robotics software teams. When the root cause sits in our code, you fix it or pair with the engineer who owns that component.
The problems you work on are complex, dynamic, and multivariable. You often have partial information, limited time, imperfect tools, and a system where software, hardware, environment, and operator behavior interact in non-obvious ways. Your job is to create clarity, choose the right debugging path, and drive the system toward a robust long-term solution.
You work closely with the perception, robotics software, embedded, hardware, and flight-test teams, and with your hardware counterpart in the field engineering team. You do not just operate systems. You make them better, and your work determines how quickly SE3 moves from prototype to repeatable deployment, from demo to product, and from individual systems to operational fleets.
What You’ll Work On
Software integration on real platforms: Bring SE3's navigation, perception, and autonomy software onto partner UAVs and onboard compute (NVIDIA Jetson and similar edge devices). Connect it to flight controllers via MAVLink, to cameras, IMUs, and other sensors, to radios and ground stations, and to operator interfaces. Make the whole thing fly.
Create clarity in complex situations: Separate symptoms from root causes, devise efficient debugging workflows, reproduce failures from the field in the lab, analyse flight logs, rosbags, and system logs, and drive lasting fixes that make the software more robust long term.
Cross-stack debugging and fixes: Move between perception-stack behavior, sensor drivers and synchronization, calibration, autonomy logic, Linux and container configuration, and networking. When the root cause requires it, contribute directly to the layer that matters, in Python or C++, and get it reviewed and merged.
Deployment tooling and automation: Own how software gets onto devices: images, Docker containers, configuration and device profiles, flashing, updates, and release packaging. Improve scripts, diagnostics, log pipelines, dashboards, and checklists so that provisioning and readiness checks are fast, repeatable, and hard to fake.
Tooling and AI-assisted workflows: Build and use intelligent debugging, log analysis, and agent-based workflows to understand complex system behavior faster than reading logs by hand.
Testing and acceptance: Define and run acceptance tests for software releases, platform integrations, and deployment configurations. Own software readiness checks across calibration, flashing, networking, sensors, and pre-mission setup.
Fieldability ownership: Spot integration gaps, recurring failure modes, missing diagnostics, and process bottlenecks. Turn field evidence into better software, better procedures, and better product decisions.
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Field deployment and end-user interface: Install, configure, maintain, and support SE3 software at test ranges, customer sites, partner demonstrations, exercises, and real-world deployments. Demonstrate systems, support training, translate field feedback into engineering requirements, and represent SE3 with technical credibility outside the lab.
Your Profile
Most importantly, you are structured, fast-moving, and mission-driven. You do not wait for perfect information. You create clarity, iterate fast, and prefer finding and fixing root causes over applying patches.
You hold a B.Sc., M.Sc. PhD, technical apprenticeship, military technical training, or equivalent practical background in Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Embedded Systems, Mechatronics, or a related field.
You bring hands-on experience integrating, testing, operating, or troubleshooting software on complex robotic, UAV, embedded, automotive, industrial automation, or defence systems.
You are at home on Linux: command line, Bash and Python scripting, Docker, Git, systemd, device and network configuration, and reading logs from several components at once.
You have worked with robotics middleware and flight controllers: ROS2 or similar, MAVLink, PX4 or ArduPilot, QGroundControl or Mission Planner, and you can read a flight log.
You can understand and modify C++ and Python code in a larger codebase, reproduce a bug, and hand over a clean fix or a clean report. You do not need to be the author of the algorithms, but you need to understand what they expect from sensors, timing, and calibration.
You are not afraid of real hardware and field constraints. You can flash a device, swap a cable, check a connector, use a multimeter or serial console, and stay systematic when the problem is messy.
You enjoy working directly with partners, operators, and end users. You can explain technical problems clearly, build trust in stressful situations, and represent SE3 professionally outside the lab.
You are proactive, hands-on, and willing to travel for field tests, partner demonstrations, exercises, and deployments across Europe and other strategic markets.
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You speak fluent English; German is a strong plus. A driving license is required. Given the nature of SE3's work in the defence sector, candidates must be eligible to work on defence-related projects and, where required, obtain the relevant security clearance.
Especially Valued Bonus Skills
Experience with visual-inertial odometry, SLAM, or GNSS-denied navigation in practice: camera/IMU calibration, time synchronization, and judging a trajectory from the data.
Experience with embedded Linux and perception pipelines on edge devices: Jetson or similar, custom images or Yocto, OTA updates, camera drivers (GStreamer, V4L2), GPU acceleration (CUDA, TensorRT), latency and load.
Experience with UAVs and flight controllers beyond the basics: PX4 or ArduPilot parameters, EKF configuration and external position input, QGroundControl or Mission Planner, mission planning, failsafes, and airspace coordination.
Experience with networking and radio systems, including WiFi networks, LTE/5G modems, VPNs, telemetry links, antenna placement, RF interference, tactical communication links, and debugging connectivity issues in the field.
Experience with perception or autonomy systems, especially localisation, camera/IMU calibration, sensor synchronization, object detection, mapping, navigation, or mission autonomy.
Experience interpreting sensor data, robot logs, flight logs, frequency-domain data.
Experience creating acceptance tests, runbooks, troubleshooting guides, fleet dashboards, release checklists, or field-support processes.
Experience with LLM-based agents and AI-assisted debugging and analysis workflows.
Optional: Experience soldering, crimping, repairing harnesses, using multimeters, oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers, serial consoles, or other lab and field equipment.
Perks & Benefits
Real Ownership: Get equity early, real stock options to participate directly in SE3’s growth
Work Environment to Excel at: Find a high-quality and modern toolset, flat hierarchy and a skilled, driven team which will push the limits together with you. We are an AI-first company empowering every employee with best-in-class AI tools and agents, giving you unlimited access to the latest advancements and a true productivity edge.
31 Paid Days Off: 30 vacation days plus your birthday off
Well-being Access: Free membership to gyms, yoga, and wellness through EGYM Wellpass
Team Offsites: We go on 2 company retreats per year, our last ones were in Italy and Greece
Mentorship: Work closely with experienced engineers and get paired with a professional mentor to support your growth
Our Process
Intro Call (20 min): Let’s get to know each other
Technical Interview (60 min): We dive into your experience with robotics systems in the field, complex debugging, system integration, and your technical background.
Onsite Trial/Case (1.5 hrs): We’ll integrate, diagnose, debug, or test something together, just like on the job.
Team Dinner/Lunch: See if it’s a culture fit on both sides