Senior Robotics Software Engineer – Lunar Rover Localization Seen this week
About Starpath
Starpath develops and manufactures technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. We are building robotic systems that locally produce essential commodities: water, power, and oxygen. We aim to launch our rovers to the Moon within 1-2 years, demonstrate industrial-scale ISRU for refueling landers, and pave the way for a permanent human lunar base.
The Role
You will own the software for accurately determining and tracking the position of our lunar rovers as they navigate on the Moon's surface. This requires strong technical understanding of localization algorithms and hands-on experience getting localization systems to work robustly on real robots in the real world.
You will decide on a technical approach, write the software to implement it, test the system on the real rover and in simulation, evaluate performance, understand where it works well and poorly, decide whether to refine or pivot, and repeat this cycle quickly.
Responsibilities
- Design a technical approach that addresses the specific challenges of rover localization on the Moon
- Develop software for accurately determining rover position on the lunar surface based on sensor data (IMU, cameras, LIDAR, odometry, star tracker, sun sensors, terrain matching)
- Test and evaluate localization performance on rover prototypes at our lunar analog test site
- Test and evaluate localization performance in Gazebo-based mission simulations based on NASA lunar terrain data
- Work closely with the software team to integrate localization with other autonomy systems (path planning, hazard avoidance)
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years experience programming in Python and/or C/C++
- Experience developing software to control real robots
- Experience with non-GPS robot localization techniques (INS, EKF, factor graphs, SLAM)
- Evidence of exceptional engineering ability
- Degree in Computer Science or related field OR demonstrated excellence at coding via significant professional experience
- Outstanding communications skills
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with outdoor robots and/or autonomous vehicles
- Experience with robots operating in natural terrain
- Experience with LIDAR-based localization (LIDAR odometry, LIDAR SLAM)
- Experience with vision-based localization (visual odometry, VSLAM)
- Experience with terrain matching techniques for localization
- Experience programming in ROS/ROS2
- Experience with robot simulators (Gazebo, Mujoco)
- Experience developing software for aerospace applications
- Experience developing and deploying software in production
Position Details
- Location: Hawthorne, CA
- Salary: $145,000-$185,000/yr base rate plus equity package; compensation scales with candidate experience
- PTO and health/dental/vision coverage included
Export Control Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.