Software Engineer I: Perception

About the Job
As a Software Engineer I - Perception at Lodestar, you’ll be joining the perception and machine vision teams to rapidly grow our vision and perception models at MITHRIL’s center.

You'll help build and refine algorithms that detect, classify and understand unknown space targets in real time. Working alongside senior perception engineers, you'll combine computer vision, image processing and machine learning to develop the custom models that underpin autonomous decision-making in complex and uncertain space environments.

This is an early-career role. We're looking for strong fundamentals and fast learning rather than a long track record, and you'll be given real ownership early with the support to grow into it.

We proudly have an "extreme ownership" oriented engineering culture.

What You’ll Do
Contribute to the perception system at the core of Lodestar's autonomy software suite
Work through the full lifecycle of perception algorithms alongside senior engineers including literature review, training, evaluation, optimisation and deployment
Build on and optimise our existing models for edge computing, and develop new components with guidance from the perception leads
Help develop and test our methods for predicting the relative pose of dynamic space targets in harsh and unpredictable visual environments
Integrate perception models into mission simulation environments and real-time autonomy pipelines
Contribute to the design of realistic sensor models and digital twins to improve perception fidelity in mission scenarios
Maintain and extend our perception tooling, model training infrastructure, and evaluation frameworks
Collaborate across the autonomy, estimation, and mission software teams to support perception fidelity, performance, and scalability

Basic Qualifications
Bachelor's or Master's degree in AI/ML, Computer Science, Robotics, a related field, or equivalent experience
0–2 years of professional experience in machine learning, robotics, computer vision, or a related field. Internships, research placements, and substantial academic or personal projects all count
Solid software engineering skills in Python, and working proficiency in C++
Foundational DNN/ML knowledge and hands-on experience with computer vision or image processing libraries (e.g. OpenCV)
Demonstrated ability to take an ML model from training through to evaluation, in any setting — coursework, research, or industry

Preferred Skills & Experience
Experience developing or deploying ML models to real-time or resource-constrained systems
Broad understanding of modern perception systems and their architecture
Exposure to sensor measurements from RADAR, electro-optical sensors, RF sensors, or LIDAR
Familiarity with image processing techniques (e.g. feature extraction, segmentation, filtering, stereo matching) to support 3D reconstruction and target classification
Experience optimising neural networks or geometric algorithms using CUDA kernels, TensorRT, or other GPU acceleration frameworks
Exposure to distributed training or cloud-based scaling of ML models (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Experience with Linux, Git, and CI/CD pipelines
Comfortable with containerisation tools such as Docker and Kubernetes
Understanding of networking and communication protocols for distributed autonomy systems

Compensation & Benefits
Pay Range for this role:
(P1) Entry: $99,000 - $133,000 / year
(P2) Developing: $115,000 - $174,000 / year
Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
Flexible PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
401(k) retirement plan with company match
Los Angeles

Additional Information
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options , and access to medical, vision and dental coverage, as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.