Engineering Manager, Perception AI

Location: Denver, Colorado or Long Beach, California; successful candidates must be located nearby. Onsite role.

Base salary: $205,000–$315,000 per year, plus equity and benefits.

Company

hirify.global develops autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, mission software, and space-based interceptors for U.S. and allied space operations.

What you will do

• Build, grow, and lead a perception AI engineering team across world models, synthetic video generation, multi-target tracking, sensor fusion, camera control, and edge-deployed object detection.
• Provide technical direction on generative AI, classical computer vision, deep learning, tracking algorithms, sensor fusion, and resource-constrained deployment.
• Define validation standards connecting synthetic data, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and operational acceptance.
• Own the team roadmap, prioritize competing technical initiatives, and coordinate delivery with flight software, hardware, autonomy, simulation, and program management teams.
• Manage hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, career development, mentoring, team communication, and conflict resolution.
• Deliver perception systems that track satellites through occlusions and complex maneuvers, discriminate objects from decoys, and maintain custody without ground intervention.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in computer science, robotics, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field; a Ph.D. or equivalent experience with a bachelor’s degree is also accepted.
• 8+ years of experience in computer vision, robotics, autonomous systems, or perception AI engineering, including 4–5 years of people management for teams of 4+ engineers.
• Strong technical foundation in synthetic data generation, multi-object tracking, sensor fusion, or edge AI deployment.
• Experience with resource-constrained perception AI, real-time vision systems, or aerospace applications operating under strict compute, power, and thermal budgets.
• Proven ability to build engineering teams, lead through influence, manage stakeholders, define processes, and deliver complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Must be a U.S. citizen and eligible for a government security clearance; ITAR eligibility requires U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residence, protected-individual status, or required authorizations.

Nice to have

• Experience with Blender, Unreal, domain randomization, sim-to-real transfer, world models, and physics-based simulation.
• Deep experience with object detection, segmentation, multi-object tracking, Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, signal processing, and classical computer vision.
• Experience with model compression, ONNX, TensorRT, embedded inference, flight software integration, and hardware-in-the-loop validation.
• Background in defense, space missions, spacecraft autonomy, UAVs, robotics, or other autonomous aerospace systems.
• Experience bridging research prototypes to reliable production systems and managing distributed or hybrid engineering teams.

Culture & Benefits

• Mission focused on space superiority and autonomous spacecraft operations.
• Health, dental, vision, HRA/HSA options, paid time off, and paid holidays.
• 401(k), parental leave, equity, and case-by-case compensation based on experience, education, skills, and location.
• Culture centered on creativity, ambitious problem-solving, teamwork, technical excellence, rigorous validation, and rapid iteration.