Engineering • Boston, MA (hybrid) • Full-time
Research & Development Engineer.
To apply, send an email with your resume to careers@missionautonomy.ai.
Our models run where the data is messy and the stakes are real: passive sonar on watch, behavioral analysis from raw footage, multi-domain tracks that have to agree with each other.
The bar isn't leaderboard accuracy. It's an alert a sonar operator will act on. This is an R&D seat — you'll own a problem from first literature review through a result the customer can see, and you'll be the one explaining why it can be trusted.
What you'll do.
- —Build and train models on acoustic, video, and multi-sensor data.
- —Own the full loop: data pipeline, training, evaluation, and deployment.
- —Design evaluations that reflect operational conditions, not just held-out test splits.
- —Work with operators and analysts to understand what a useful output actually looks like.
- —Make model behavior explainable enough that someone will stake a decision on it.
- —Write up results: technical reports, customer briefings, and the next proposal.
What we're looking for.
- —Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, physics, or a related technical field.
- —3+ years of experience working on defense programs.
- —Strong Python and PyTorch, or equivalent.
- —Experience with signal, audio, or video data — not just tabular or text.
- —You can build a data pipeline, not just consume a clean dataset someone handed you.
- —Comfortable reading a paper on Monday and having something running by Friday.
Nice to have.
- —Master's degree in a related technical field.
- —Acoustics, sonar, RF, or another sensor domain.
- —Multimodal fusion or sequence modeling at scale.
- —Deploying models to edge or embedded hardware.
- —Prior work on Department of War programs or SBIR/STTR efforts.
U.S. citizenship required. Must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.
How we work.
Startup pace.
We're a small company with real contracts and real delivery dates. Priorities shift when a program or a test window shifts, and the work shifts with them. Expect to change direction more than once a quarter.
You run your own work.
Nobody hands out tickets here. You get a problem, the context around it, and the room to figure out the path. That cuts both ways — it means asking for what you need and speaking up early when something isn't working.
Wide scope, small team.
You'll touch things outside your title: a customer call, a proposal, a test rig, a job nobody formally assigned. If you'd rather stay in one lane with a clean spec handed to you, this isn't the right fit.
Sound like you?
Send an email with your resume to careers@missionautonomy.ai, along with a short note on what you've worked on. No cover letter template required.
Posted August 23, 2026