Experienced Drone Robotics Perception AI / ML Software Developer

At WingXpand®

Locations:

Chicago (Schaumburg), IL | St. Louis, MO

‍Type:

Full-time

About WingXpand

WingXpand is Expanding What’s Possible™ with Autonomous Systems, building long-endurance, backpackable smart plane drones and robotics systems that support defense, public safety, disaster response, and commercial missions. Our platforms operate across air, ground, and maritime domains, integrating autonomy, AI-powered sensing, edge computing, and networked systems to deliver real-world intelligence and threat detection. We design, build, and deploy complete systems — hardware, software, and data — and we move fast. As WingXpand scales, we are seeking high performers to grow with our team.

Position Description

We are seeking an experienced drone perception AI / ML software developer to join our team. The successful candidate will be responsible for designing, developing and implementing real time navigation, mapping, sensing, detection, and alerting algorithms for our WingXpand™ Drone platforms. This is a unique opportunity to follow the full software lifecycle from concept to integration and testing on real-world production aircraft.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Design, develop and implement algorithms for navigation, mapping, perception, and decision-making
  • Integrate software systems with drone hardware, including onboard sensors
  • Integrate perception algorithms into autopilot software feedback loop
  • Refine software parameters to improve performance through software simulations, lab and flight assessments
  • Seamlessly collaborate with hardware and manufacturing engineers to achieve aircraft performance requirements and ensure compatibility
  • Leverage and maintain a scalable software development workflow, including writing clear, well documented and easy to maintain code

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, robotics or a related field
  • 3+ years of experience in software development, with a focus on autonomy systems.
  • Strong skills in C++ and Python
  • Expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches utilizing sensor data, especially experience with SLAM, VIO, computer vision and control systems
  • Experience with integrating software with onboard computers like Rasberry Pi, NVIDIA Jetson, and VOXL
  • Additional experiences desired with TensorFlow Lite, YOLO, Google Colab, ROS, and Ubuntu
  • Strong expertise in selecting, creating and implementing perception, edge AI, and machine learning algorithms in the real world
  • Expert at developing image detection models and has experience training deep-learning models in an end-to-end fashion based on use case requirements
  • Familiar with developing software architecture, data networking concepts, testing and debugging software
  • Experience with agile software development workflows and has ability to fully build software from source files, leveraging GitHub
  • Self-starter eager to learn and dive into new projects with strong communication and teamwork skills

Additional qualifications:

  • Familiarity with RTOS and network protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, MQTT) for real-time embedded applications.
  • Understanding of cloud computing platforms and services for backend support and AI model operations.
  • Prefer those with a background in developing and flying drones
  • Prefer those with a proven track record of succeeding in fast paced environments

What Else You Need to Know

To conform to U.S. Government aerospace technology export regulations, applicant must be a 'U.S. Person' (U.S. Citizen or a Permanent Resident/Green Card Holder).

If you are a self-motivated, results-driven individual with a passion for innovation and technology, we want to hear from you!

Apply with your resume and optional cover letter (CV), including the types of engineering or technical roles you have hired.

Apply Now