Software Engineer, Flight Autonomy
Windborne
WindBorne Systems is supercharging weather models with a unique proprietary data source: constellations of next-generation smart weather balloons targeting the most critical atmospheric data. Our long-term vision is to eliminate weather uncertainty, and in the process help humanity adapt to climate change, be that predicting hurricanes or speeding the adoption of renewables. The founding team of Stanford engineers was named Forbes 2019 30 under 30 and is backed by top investors including Khosla Ventures.
WindBorne is looking for a Software Engineer for Flight Autonomy to write software that autonomously manages thousands of balloons at once. Each balloon has complete control over its flight altitude at any point in time, but it must manage finite resources. Ground servers issue commands to the constellation by optimizing multi-agent objective functions; each balloon operates autonomously based on those commands. Your job will be to manage this system from a high-level, modifying and designing algorithms, and implementing and managing the software that runs them. For more information on the role, reach out.
We're dedicated to both mitigating climate change and helping humanity adapt to its effects as fast as possible, and you can be a part of our mission to make this global societal impact. If you like the idea of working on cutting edge technology, and working with a fast moving team, WindBorne is the place for you.
Roles and responsibilities
- Develop and implement state-of-the-art algorithms for autonomous flight control, navigation, and decision-making for our smart weather balloons
- Collaborate with other engineers including hardware, software, and data analytics to design and optimize the overall system performance
- Test and validate autonomous flight algorithms through simulation, ground testing, and in-flight experiments
- Manage the software that runs the algorithms you develop with standard software engineering practices
- Maintain up-to-date knowledge of relevant research, industry trends, and state-of-the-art techniques
For more information on the technical problems to be solved by this role, reach out.
Skills and Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related field
- Strong experience and proficiency with C++ and Python
- Strong experience with Stochastic Gradient Descent based methods
- Strong background and understanding in the math at the foundation of machine learning and control theory, such as linear algebra, statistics, and vector calculus
- Good understanding of how to efficiently leverage high performance compute
- Ability and willingness to get hands dirty in low level software
- A strong preference for a software engineering oriented languages like Python or Julia over MATLAB & Simulink
- Scrappiness
Nice to have
- Experience with Convex Optimization
- Experience with Python <> C++ interfaces
- Familiarity with Clang and LLVM
- Experience writing software in a team setting
- Basic Ruby
Benefits
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Vision insurance
- Unlimited PTO
- Stock Option Plan
- Office food and beverages
Location
Address: 858 San Antonio Rd, Palo Alto, CA.
In person strongly preferred.