Who We Are
XCaliber Technologies is a defense technology company building the next generation of autonomous air defense. We develop integrated Counter UAS systems combining autonomy, sensing, command and control, and purpose built aircraft to detect, track, and defeat evolving aerial threats.
We are a small, fast-moving team where your work directly shapes the systems we build and the capabilities we deliver to protect people and strengthen national security.
The Role
We are looking for a Senior Computer Vision Engineer to own the development and deployment of computer vision capabilities for our unmanned aircraft platforms.
You will take perception systems from initial development and model training through onboard integration, flight testing, and continuous improvement using real flight data. Working closely with our drone design and integration engineers, you will help make cameras, onboard computing, and perception software work reliably as part of the complete aircraft.
This is a hands on engineering role with technical ownership and direct involvement in hardware integration and field testing.
What You Will Do
· Design and develop CV pipelines for object detection, classification, tracking, and scene understanding using visible and thermal imagery.
· Build, train, evaluate, and improve perception models, combining classical CV and deep learning where each is most effective.
· Develop data collection, labeling, processing, and evaluation workflows that turn test and flight data into measurable improvements.
· Deploy and optimize perception software on onboard computing platforms, balancing accuracy, latency, memory, power, and reliability.
· Work with drone engineers to select and integrate cameras and computing hardware, addressing calibration, synchronization, image quality, vibration, and physical integration constraints.
· Collaborate with autonomy, controls, and embedded software engineers to define interfaces and integrate perception outputs into the aircraft software stack.
· Establish performance metrics and repeatable tests, using recorded data, simulation, bench testing, and live flights to evaluate behavior across lighting, motion, weather, and other operating conditions.
· Participate directly in field testing, investigate failures, and improve performance using flight data and feedback from the team.
· Own technical decisions within your area, contribute to code and design reviews, and guide other engineers while remaining directly involved in implementation.
What We Are Looking For
· Strong experience developing CV or perception systems, with demonstrated ownership from initial development through deployment in real world applications.
· Solid foundations in image processing, geometric vision, camera calibration, and deep learning, with practical experience in detection, tracking, or related perception tasks.
· Strong Python and C++ skills, with experience using OpenCV and a modern machine learning framework such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
· Experience deploying and profiling perception software under real time computing constraints.
· Ability to build reliable datasets and evaluation methods, diagnose model and system failures, and distinguish algorithm limitations from sensor or integration problems.
· Practical software engineering experience in Linux, including version control, testing, debugging, and maintainable code.
· Ability to work closely with hardware engineers, take ownership of ambiguous technical problems, and participate in workshop and field testing.
· A degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
Nice to Have
· Experience with drones, autonomous vehicles, or other robotic platforms.
· Experience deploying models on NVIDIA Jetson or similar embedded computing hardware.
· Familiarity with thermal imaging, multiple camera systems, sensor fusion, visual odometry, localization, or mapping.
· Experience with Robot Operating System, robotics simulation, or testing software with physical hardware.
· Experience improving model performance through quantization, model compression, or hardware acceleration.
Direct defense or Counter UAS experience is valuable but not required.
Show Us What You Have Built
We welcome examples of perception systems you have developed and deployed, including project demonstrations, code, technical writeups, or results from testing. If your work is confidential, you can discuss your contribution, engineering decisions, and lessons learned at an appropriate level.
We care about your ability to turn strong CV ideas into reliable systems that work in the field.