Autonomy Lead

Skyways designs, builds, and operates fully autonomous long-range cargo aircraft. We have been flying real missions with real customers since 2017.

Our V2 carries 30 lbs up to 500 miles and our V3 carries 100 lbs over 1,000 miles with 20+ hours of endurance. Both use a dual-hybrid design that takes off like a helicopter and cruises like a plane. We are currently flying on three continents, in controlled national airspace under FAA oversight, and in support of U.S. military operations.

Backed by Y Combinator and a $37M STRATFI contract from the U.S. Air Force, we are moving from prototype to full-rate production with a path to Program of Record. Based in Austin, we are scaling fast and hiring people who want to build the world's largest fleet of autonomous logistics aircraft.

The Opportunity

This role owns how autonomy works in real-world flight.

You will define how perception, state estimation, planning, and flight behaviors come together into a system that actually completes missions reliably. This is not about building isolated components. It is about making the full stack work under real constraints.

You will shape how our ML systems improve with real-world data and ensure they perform outside of ideal conditions.

This is not an entry-level role. We are looking for someone who has already built and deployed autonomy systems on real-world robotic or UAV platforms.

You will lead a small team while staying hands-on in architecture, implementation, and flight debugging. Your work directly impacts whether aircraft complete missions safely and consistently.

What You'll Do:

• Own the end-to-end autonomy system across perception, state estimation, planning, and system behavior

• Define system architecture and make tradeoffs across performance, reliability, and complexity

• Lead engineers and set technical direction for autonomy development

• Work directly in the codebase on critical parts of the stack

• Drive integration across GNC, hardware, and mission planning systems

• Own how perception and ML models are developed, evaluated, and improved using real-world data

• Drive dataset strategy, labeling, and iteration loops to improve system performance

• Evaluate model performance in real-world conditions and close gaps between simulation and deployment

• Define how autonomy is validated across simulation, ground testing, and flight testing

• Debug real-world failures using flight data, logs, and system-level analysis

• Identify gaps in the current system and drive changes needed for reliable deployment

• Set execution standards for autonomy development and delivery

What You'll Bring:

You have owned autonomy systems that operated in the real world, not just simulation or research environments

Strong system-level understanding across perception, estimation, and planning, with depth in at least one area

Experience training, evaluating, or improving ML models used in real-world robotic or autonomy systems

Experience working with real-world datasets, labeling pipelines, and model iteration cycles

Experience taking at least one autonomy system from early development through real-world deployment and iteration

Strong proficiency in C++ and Python

Experience working across software, hardware, and flight or field operations

Ability to make practical tradeoffs under real constraints and deliver working systems

Experience leading engineers and driving technical direction

Experience debugging real-world autonomy failures using logs, telemetry, or flight data

Bonus Points If You Have:

Experience with autonomous aircraft or aerial systems

Background in robotics, computer vision, or motion planning

Experience with real-time or embedded systems

Familiarity with ROS2 or similar robotics frameworks

Experience deploying ML models to resource-constrained or real-time systems

Want to join our mission? Apply to learn more!

Due to U.S. government contract requirements, this role is limited to U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, or candidates from specific countries authorized under applicable export control regulations.

Skyways is an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status or any other factor protected by applicable local, state or federal laws.