Senior Systems Engineer - Autonomous Drone Perception, Prime Air

Amazon Amazon · Big Tech · Seattle, WA · Software Development

Senior Systems Engineer for Amazon Prime Air's autonomous drone perception systems. This role involves translating operational requirements into system specifications, bridging ML algorithms with flight control, and ensuring perception systems meet aviation certification standards. The focus is on the integration and validation of ML-based perception for safe autonomous flight.

What you'd actually do

  1. Translate complex operational requirements into detailed system and subsystem specifications for our vision-based perception systems
  2. Bridge the gap between perception algorithms (computer vision, radar processing, ML) and their integration with the broader flight control and autonomy stack
  3. Develop comprehensive requirements documentation that meets aviation certification standards while enabling rapid innovation
  4. Collaborate with cross-functional teams (ML engineers, computer vision specialists, hardware engineers) to design and validate perception system architectures
  5. Lead technical reviews to ensure perception systems meet performance, safety, and reliability requirements

Skills

Required

  • Experience developing requirements and system architectures for perception systems in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or aerospace applications
  • Strong background in computer vision, sensor fusion, or machine learning applications
  • Proven ability to decompose high-level requirements into detailed system specifications
  • Exceptional analytical thinking and technical documentation skills
  • Collaborative mindset with the ability to work across disciplines

Nice to have

  • Experience with regulatory certification processes (FAA or similar) is highly valuable
  • 6+ years of designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
  • Experience leading the design, build and deployment of complex and performant (reliable and scalable) software solutions in production
  • 6+ years of systems design, software development, operations, automation, and process improvement experience

What the JD emphasized

  • aviation certification standards
  • regulatory certification processes
  • ML engineers
  • computer vision specialists

Other signals

  • Develop comprehensive requirements documentation that meets aviation certification standards while enabling rapid innovation
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams (ML engineers, computer vision specialists, hardware engineers) to design and validate perception system architectures
  • Lead technical reviews to ensure perception systems meet performance, safety, and reliability requirements
  • Drive continuous improvement in how we develop and certify perception systems for autonomous flight