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Autonomy Test Engineer

Applied Intuition· Defense
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San Diego, CA$145k - $190kFull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Autonomy Test Engineer responsible for verification of autonomy software on real vessels, designing and executing test scenarios, analyzing data to determine if autonomy behaved correctly, and providing actionable findings to the engineering team. Primary testing occurs at sea; role bridges R&D and mission-proven capability for autonomous surface vehicles.

Responsibilities

  • Design test scenarios and test cards that exercise specific autonomy behaviors and edge cases, with clear pass/fail criteria
  • Execute on-water test events, participating in sorties aboard test and chase vessels while monitoring autonomy performance against expected behavior
  • Analyze sortie data (logs, telemetry, sensor data) to characterize autonomy performance and isolate root causes of anomalies across perception, planning, control, and hardware
  • Reproduce field anomalies in simulation and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) environments, and build regression tests so fixes stay fixed
  • Identify, document, and triage system discrepancies in Atlassian Jira with enough detail and reproducibility for autonomy and hardware engineers to act on
  • Contribute to test plans, test procedures, and test readiness reviews under the direction of the Test & Evaluation Director
  • Author clear, comprehensive test reports and after action reports that capture results, observations, and recommendations
  • Support pre-underway system checkouts and launch and recovery operations alongside the marine operations team

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline (e.g., Systems, Electrical, Mechanical, Ocean), Computer Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent hands-on experience
  • 2+ years of experience in test or systems integration engineering for complex, software-intensive systems
  • Hands-on experience testing or validating autonomous or robotic systems (air, ground, sea, or simulation), including designing test cases and evaluating system behavior against requirements
  • Experience analyzing test data (logs, telemetry, sensor data) using tools such as Python, MATLAB, or similar
  • Experience with simulation-based, software-in-the-loop (SIL), or HITL testing
  • Experience with agile program management tooling such as Atlassian Jira
  • Strong technical writing skills, with the ability to draft clear test reports and after action reports
  • Comfort and demonstrated ability working on vessels offshore for extended periods, in potentially harsh conditions
  • Willingness and ability to travel up to 40% of the time, including significant time offshore on vessels of various sizes

Skills

Required:Test design and executionData analysisSimulation and HITL testingAgile tools (Jira)Technical writingOffshore seamanship/operational comfortTravel readiness

Benefits

  • Base salary plus equity and benefits as described in compensation section
Last updated Oct 25, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Applied Intuition

Building vehicle intelligence | Applied Intuition

Applied Intuition is the vehicle intelligence company with the tools, Vehicle OS, and autonomy stacks for creating safe, AI-powered vehicle experiences.

AIAutonomy stacksSelf-Driving SystemSimulationTesting & ValidationVehicle IntelligenceVehicle OSai-infrastructure-and-development
Company profileWebsite

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