Director of Engineering - Autonomy Products
Skydio is the leading US drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial transportation. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, and operational excellence to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users - from action sports enthusiasts to first responders.
About the role: Skydio is built around deep technological investments in autonomy that lead to breakthrough products. We are looking for an elite engineering director to grow and lead the team that builds autonomous applications on top of our core algorithmic stack and turns them into breakthrough products.
A decade of research has gone into creating the visual navigation system that powers our drones and allows them to fly autonomously at scale in unknown environments. From inspection to cinematography to situational awareness, our drones are general purpose tools that are creating value for countless industries as the emerging technology crosses into mainstream use.
Our autonomy team has incredible technical strength in solving complex algorithmic challenges, and needs help growing to meet the product opportunities ahead and deliver on Skydio’s vision. You will be the owner of multiple major product areas within the autonomy team, including:
- 3D scanning - autonomous imaging of any scene to build millimeter-precision 3D models
- Cinematography - autonomously capture incredible footage of high-speed, dynamic scenes
- Dock missions - end-to-end repeatable workflows from anywhere in the world with no onsite pilot
- Situational awareness - AI-assist tools to provide mission-critical insights for public safety and defense
One of your ownership areas is the Skills API, a layer we’ve built to allow rapid iteration of high level behaviors with interfaces to our real-time state estimation, 3D mapping, object tracking, and motion planning algorithms, as well as to our mobile, cloud, and embedded systems. Our first day onboarding exercise is to create a new skill, test it in simulation, and fly it on a real drone by the end of the day. These skills grow from prototypes to transformative autonomous workflows that are shipped as software products on top of our general-purpose HW platforms.
Read about our team here: http://autonomy.skyd.io
How you'll make an impact:
- You will be responsible for bringing state-of-the-art autonomy technology to market with a combination of product insights and high quality software engineering
- You will execute on complex cross-team goals, collaborating across our core autonomy, product management, embedded, mobile, cloud, hardware, and flight test teams with emphasis on excellent communication
- You will hire and mentor world-class engineers to rapidly scale up multiple teams
- You will leverage your experience and best practices to uphold and improve Skydio’s engineering standards and drive infrastructure investments that make us successful
What makes you a good fit:
- Technical leader with strong software engineering experience and a track record of delivering complex products
- Proven leadership, management, recruiting, team building, and communication skills
- Interest and some depth in topics related to 3D geometry, mathematics, robotics, and computer vision
- You are excited to dive into autonomous flying robots and make them do amazing things in the world
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At Skydio we believe that diversity drives innovation. We have created a multi-disciplinary environment that embraces the power of diverse perspectives to create elegant solutions for complex problems. We are committed to growing our network of people, programs, and resources to nurture an inclusive culture.
As such, we do not make hiring or other employment-related decisions on the basis of an applicant or employee’s race, color, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions), pregnancy, gender, gender identity or expression, age, religion, disability status, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, generic information or characteristics, veteran, military or family status, or other classifications protected by applicable federal, state or local anti-discrimination laws.
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