Senior Computer Vision Engineer in Austin

Our V2 aircraft carries 30 lbs up to 500 miles, while our next- V3 carries 100 lbs over 1,000+ miles with 20+ hours of endurance. Both use a hybrid-electric architecture that takes off like a helicopter and cruises like a plane, enabling long-range autonomous delivery without traditional runway infrastructure. Today, Skyways aircraft operate across three continents in controlled airspace under FAA oversight and in support of U.S. military operations. We are transitioning from prototype development to full-rate production and scaling toward large autonomous cargo fleets. Backed by Y Combinator and a $37M AFWERX STRATFI award from the U.S. Air Force, Skyways is creating a new form of transportation to advance our civilization from Austin, Texas.

The Opportunity

This role owns some of the hardest perception problems in autonomous flight.

You will develop computer vision systems for autonomous landing, targetless landing zone evaluation, and perception-driven navigation in real operating environments. Your work will directly impact how aircraft identify safe landing areas, operate in degraded environments, and complete missions reliably without prepared infrastructure.

You will work across perception, sensor fusion, and flight systems to improve how aircraft understand terrain, obstacles, and environmental conditions during autonomous operations.

The ideal candidate has experience deploying perception systems on real robotic, automotive, or aerial platforms and understands the challenges of reliability, integration, and operational performance at system level.

You will work closely with autonomy, GNC, and flight operations teams to take systems from development through flight testing and operational deployment.

What You’ll Do:

• Develop and deploy computer vision systems for autonomous landing and landing zone evaluation
• Build perception systems for targetless landing in unstructured and dynamic environments
• Mentor junior perception engineers and raise the quality bar for how perception systems are designed, tested, and deployed
• Develop algorithms for terrain understanding, obstacle detection, and environment classification
• Work with onboard camera, IMU, GPS, and other sensor data in real flight environments
• Improve system performance using operational flight data, testing, and iteration
• Collaborate across autonomy, GNC, and flight operations teams to integrate perception into flight behaviors
• Debug perception and autonomy issues observed during simulation, ground testing, and flight operations
• Contribute to software architecture, testing, integration, and deployment workflows

• 5+ years of experience developing and deploying computer vision or perception systems in real-world environments
• Strong proficiency in C++ and Python
• Experience with perception systems for robotics, autonomous vehicles, drones, or aerospace platforms
• Experience working with real sensor data and operational deployment constraints
• Strong understanding of camera systems, sensor fusion, and state estimation concepts
• Experience debugging and improving deployed perception systems using logs, telemetry, or flight data
• Ability to operate effectively in fast-moving engineering environments
• Strong communication and collaboration skills

Bonus Points If You Have:

• Experience with autonomous aircraft or aerial robotics
• Experience with landing zone evaluation, terrain classification, or visual navigation systems
• Background in SLAM, visual odometry, or GPS-denied navigation
• Experience with embedded or real-time systems
• Familiarity with ROS2 or similar robotics frameworks
• Experience deploying perception systems to resource-constrained platforms

Job DescriptionJob Description Skyways designs, builds, and operates fully autonomous long-range cargo aircraft. Founded in 2017, the company has spent the last eight years developing and deploying autonomous logistics systems for real-world operations.