Manager, Software - Perception (R3770)

Location: On-site in Washington, DC; San Diego, California; Dallas, Texas; or Boston, Massachusetts. Travel of approximately 10–15% is required for office visits, customer sites, and flight integration events.

Salary: $220,441–$330,661 per year, plus potential bonus, benefits, and equity.

Company

hirify.global is a venture-backed defense-tech company developing intelligent systems, including autonomy software, unmanned aircraft, and simulation technologies.

What you will do

• Lead multidisciplinary teams across autonomy, integration, and testing while aligning technical execution and resolving cross-functional challenges.
• Design and implement real-time algorithms for object detection, classification, multi-target tracking, and state estimation.
• Integrate data from EO/IR cameras, radars, IMUs, GPS, and other mission sensors using probabilistic and rule-based sensor-fusion approaches.
• Interpret sensor Interface Control Documents and hardware integration specifications to ensure correct data handling and synchronization.
• Optimize and validate perception pipelines in simulation, synthetic-data environments, flight tests, and operational settings.
• Collaborate with autonomy, systems, hardware, and sensor teams to integrate perception outputs with planning and decision-making systems.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Typically 7+ years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 5+ years with a master’s degree, or 4+ years with a PhD.
• 5+ years of experience in unmanned-systems programs within the DoD or applied R&D, including 2+ years of people leadership experience.
• Experience with Kalman filters, multi-target tracking, deep-learning detection models, SLAM, visual-inertial odometry, or sensor-fused localization.
• Experience with version control, debugging, test-driven development, ICDs, and hardware-integration specifications.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Nice to have

• Experience with airborne sensing systems, flight-test events, or perception software on SWaP-constrained platforms.
• Experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow for vision-based detection and classification.
• Knowledge of sensing challenges in denied or degraded environments.
• Experience with perception applications across air, maritime, and ground platforms.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time regular employment with salary, bonus, benefits, and equity.
• Work focused on intelligent autonomy for unmanned aircraft across air, sea, and land DoD domains.
• Opportunities to work with simulation, synthetic data, real-world sensing, and flight-integration environments.
• Employment offers are contingent on a cleared background and may include a reference check.