Description
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - solving complex challenges that matter.
We're building the future of UAS capabilities, and we're looking for exceptional talent to join us. If you're driven by hard problems, energized by rapid innovation, and ready to make an impact on next-generation flight systems, you belong here.
We are looking for a Perception Simulation Engineer to build the sensor-simulation and synthetic-data backbone of our Unreal Engine simulation environment. Where a general mission-simulation engineer builds worlds and vehicle dynamics, this role is focused specifically on making simulated perception good enough to develop and validate real perception and target-tracking software before flight — high-fidelity RGB and thermal (IR) camera models, sensor feeds streamed onto ROS 2 topics, and synthetic data pipelines that feed our detection, tracking, and Target State Estimation (TSE) stacks.
You will work at the seam between the Unreal Engine and perception pipelines, turning "we can render a scene" into "we can trust the perception numbers coming out of the sim." This is a foundational effort.
We welcome both generalists and specialists—you do not need every skill listed below.
Responsibilities:
Synthetic Sensor Modeling (core of the role)
- Build high-fidelity RGB and long-wave IR (thermal) camera models in Unreal Engine, and render both views from platform-mounted cameras.
- Tune simulated camera output to match (or closely approximate) real-world camera performance — FOV, resolution, framerate, thermal response — driven by the specs of the sensors we actually fly (e.g. FLIR Boson / Boson+ LWIR).
- Implement realistic sensor noise, artifacts, motion blur, and failure modes so perception software is tested against hard cases, not clean renders.
- Support camera articulation independent of vehicle orientation (gimbal/boresight), so control-envelope requirements can be derived directly from camera specs.
ROS 2 Integration
- Publish simulated camera imagery and sensor data onto ROS 2 topics using the shared strive_msgs / strive_interfaces contracts, so the same interface serves sim and hardware.
- Implement and test developer contracts and fulfill deterministic simulation requirements.
- Feed the perception pipeline and downstream Target State Estimation (TSE) with simulated sensor streams and ground-truth labels for evaluation.
Synthetic Data & Target Simulation
- Build synthetic-data generation and export pipelines (imagery + bounding boxes / segmentation / range + pose ground truth) suitable for training and evaluating detection, tracking, and TSE models.
- Implement target injection: spawn and drive targets (vehicles, people, infrastructure) with configurable motion, including dynamic add/remove during a running mission to simulate delayed deployments and dynamic scenarios.
- Support target-hint / track integration based on ground based sensor tracking and ground-truth generation for scoring TSE accuracy (position/velocity/acceleration error).
Asset & Scenario Pipeline
- Own the process to import external target CAD (e.g. TurboSquid) and Zone 5 platform CAD into the sim as usable, correctly-scaled models.
- Manage the 3D asset pipeline (models, materials, thermal material properties for the IR view).
- Enforce scenario-driven rules that need perception ground truth — e.g. inter-platform/target proximity and fratricide detection (position of each entity per timestep, squared-distance comparison against a scenario parameter for performance).
Performance & Scale
- Optimize rendering for real-time and accelerated modes; build headless simulation modes for large-scale parallel scenario execution.
- Collaborate with the platform team to run perception sim in CI/CD for continuous evaluation of perception/TSE software.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Game Development, or related field — equivalent industry experience welcome.
- 3–6+ years developing in Unreal Engine with C++, including custom plugins/modules.
- Working knowledge of ROS 2 and integrating it with a simulation environment.
- Solid grounding in 3D graphics, real-time rendering, and camera/sensor models — projection, FOV, framerate, noise, and how they affect a downstream vision algorithm.
- Practical understanding of camera-based perception (detection/tracking) and what makes synthetic imagery useful (or useless) for developing it.
- Comfortable with software architecture, design patterns, and collaborative version-control workflows.
Preferred:
- Experience building sensor simulation for robotics/autonomous vehicles, especially thermal/IR or multi-modal (EO/IR/lidar/radar) sensing.
- Familiarity with synthetic data generation for ML perception (labels, sim-to-real gap, domain randomization).
- Knowledge of state estimation / multi-target tracking (Kalman/EKF, track-to-track association) enough to build meaningful TSE test scenarios.
- Experience with edge perception deployment (NVIDIA Jetson, TensorRT) and matching sim interfaces t
Similar jobs
Est. 124,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
Est. 124,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
Est. 120,000 EUR
OUR VISION When people use our technology to "bridge the gap" between the physical and digital worlds, they don’t just capture reality - they create a new one. In this new reality, they are smarter, more productive, more…
Est. 175,000 USD
About Lucid At Lucid, we are creating exceptional mobility experiences through innovation to drive the world forward. Built on Lucid’s proprietary technology and software-defined vehicle architecture, our award-winning v…
Est. 90,000 EUR
OUR VISION When people use our technology to "bridge the gap" between the physical and digital worlds, they don’t just capture reality - they create a new one. In this new reality, they are smarter, more productive, more…
Est. 124,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
Est. 141,000 USD
Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century…
Est. 105,000 USD
Step into a career with ASM, where cutting edge technology meets collaborative culture. For over 55 years ASM has been ahead of what’s next, at the forefront of innovation and what’s technologically possible. With more…
Est. 141,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
Est. 124,000 USD
Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century…
Est. 124,000 USD
Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century…
Est. 120,000 PLN
EBS is a rapidly expanding, entrepreneurial technology company and part of Alarm.com. Alarm.com is the leading cloud-based platform for smart security and the Internet of Things. More than 7.6+ million home and business…
Est. 175,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
Est. 165,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
Est. 140,000 USD
About Nebius: Nebius is leading a new era in cloud infrastructure for the global AI economy. We are building a full-stack AI cloud platform that supports developers and enterprises from data and model training through to…
Est. 124,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
APPLICATIONS FROM OUTSIDE COLOMBIA WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS ROLERobots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm building the next frontier of business architecture. We design and ship AI co-workers that int…
Robots & Pencils is seeking an AI Engineer to design, build, and deploy production-grade AI systems that deliver measurable business value. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on implementation and delivery.…
Est. 125,000 USD
Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century…
Est. 141,000 USD
Astera Labs (NASDAQ: ALAB) provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions. By collaborating with hyperscalers and ecosystem partners, Astera Labs enables organizations to unlock the fu…
Est. 115,000 USD
At BETA Technologies, we apply our intellectual curiosity, passion for aviation, and commitment to sustainability toward a shared mission of revolutionizing electric aviation. Regardless of the position one holds, each t…
Est. 95,000 USD
At NiCE, we don’t limit our challenges. We challenge our limits. Always. We’re ambitious. We’re game changers. And we play to win. We set the highest standards and execute beyond them. And if you’re like us, we can offer…
Est. 105,000 USD
At NiCE, we don’t limit our challenges. We challenge our limits. Always. We’re ambitious. We’re game changers. And we play to win. We set the highest standards and execute beyond them. And if you’re like us, we can offer…
ABOUT ROCKET LAB Rocket Lab is the end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems that keep the world connected, protected, expand humanity’s reach to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. We move f…
Est. 175,000 USD
Company Introduction We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did I ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living…
Est. 144,000 USD
Are you ready to make an impact?West Monroe is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the Tech Ex AI Assets Foundry Team, working with the internal Labs product team to develop proprietary software assets and AI capa…
Est. 175,000 USD
About Nebius: Nebius is leading a new era in cloud infrastructure for the global AI economy. We are building a full-stack AI cloud platform that supports developers and enterprises from data and model training through to…
Est. 140,000 USD
PsiQuantum’s mission is to build the first useful quantum computers—machines capable of delivering the breakthroughs the field has long promised. Since our founding in 2016, our singular focus has been to build and deplo…
Est. 124,000 USD
At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - sol…
Welcome to the future of cloud networking and security! Cato Networks is the first company to converge enterprise networking and security into one centralized and global service that is delivered by cloud. It is led by n…