Technical Leader — Perception Systems

We are looking for a seasoned Technical Leader to head the Perception Systems function. This role combines deep technical expertise in various domains of Perception Systems including Visual SLAM, Computer Vision, and AI/ML with the leadership bandwidth to drive architecture decisions, mentor engineers, and define a multi-year product roadmap for autonomous perception UAV platforms. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience from ADAS or UAV domains and is energised by the challenge of building systems that operate reliably in GPS-denied, resource-constrained, and operationally demanding environments.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Own the end-to-end perception architecture for UAV platforms from sensor integration through algorithm design to flight-validated deployment
• Define and enforce software architecture standards for real-time C/C++ perception pipelines running on embedded SoCs (Qualcomm RB5, Jetson Nano, RPi CM5 and equivalent)
• Lead technical design reviews, code reviews, and algorithm trade-off analyses across the Perception team
• Collaborate with avionics, flight control, and GCS teams to ensure seamless system integration

Visual SLAM & State Estimation

• Drive development and optimisation of Visual/Visual-Inertial SLAM systems (ORB-SLAM3, VINS-Mono, OpenVINS or equivalent) for GPS-denied navigation
• Guide research into thermal SLAM, night-time visual positioning, and multi-spectral sensor fusion
• Define validation methodology and performance benchmarks for localisation accuracy, map consistency, and drift bounds across terrain types

AI / ML & Deep Learning Initiatives

• Oversee UAV-specific object detection and multi-target tracking pipelines (YOLO, Siamese trackers and next-generation models)
• Lead development of vision-based obstacle detection and avoidance systems for autonomous flight safety
• Define roadmap for vision-based seeker technology for precision engagement and delivery applications
• Drive image/video enhancement initiatives super-resolution (ESRGAN/HAT), dehazing, denoising optimised for edge inference
• Evaluate and integrate model compression techniques (quantisation, pruning, TensorRT / ONNX Runtime) for on-device deployment

People & Programme Management

• Build, mentor, and grow a high-performance team of perception and computer vision engineers
• Translate product strategy into engineering milestones with clear ownership and timelines
• Interface with programme managers, system architects, and customers on capability requirements and delivery schedules
• Champion engineering excellence through documentation, testing rigour, and CI/CD practices

Education

• B.Tech / M.Tech / M.S. / Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field

Experience

• 12-18+ years in computer vision, SLAM, or autonomous systems engineering, with at least 3 years in a technical lead or architect capacity
• Proven track record delivering perception systems in an ADAS, robotics, or UAV product context
• Experience leading cross-functional engineering teams and driving algorithm development from research to production

Core Technical Skills

• Visual / Visual-Inertial SLAM: Deep knowledge of feature-based (ORB, AKAZE), direct, and learning-based SLAM methods; loop closure, map management, drift correction
• C/C++ (C++14/17): Expert-level; ability to write and review performance-critical, real-time code on embedded Linux platforms
• Computer Vision: Optical flow, stereo vision, depth estimation, camera models and calibration (monocular, stereo, fisheye)
• Deep Learning for Perception: Object detection, segmentation, tracking; experience with PyTorch/TensorFlow and edge inference frameworks
• ROS / ROS2: Proficiency with perception node development, tf2, sensor drivers, and inter-process communication
• Sensor Fusion: IMU pre-integration, barometer/GPS fusion, multi-camera rigs; EKF/UKF/graph optimisation (g2o, GTSAM, Ceres)
• Embedded Deployment: Performance profiling, optimisation for ARM/Qualcomm DSP/NPU, GStreamer pipelines for video

Desirable / Good to Have

• Familiarity with thermal imaging systems and thermal-specific perception challenges
• Experience with flight stack integration
• Knowledge of NeRF, 3D Gaussian Splatting, or neural implicit representations for mapping
• Publications or patents in SLAM, autonomous systems, or computer vision