Mission Autonomy Engineer

Forterra•Clarksburg, MD

23h•Onsite

About The Position

About Mission Autonomy Mission autonomy transforms how robotic teams plan, adapt, and accomplish objectives with minimal human intervention. Forterra is pioneering mission autonomy to reduce cognitive load, enable scalable multi-domain operations, and preserve commander intent in the most challenging environments. Our mission autonomy drives the future of warfare by enabling new and creative capabilities. About this job We are seeking an Engineer to help design and build Forterra’s core mission autonomy capabilities. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who thrives in ambiguous problem spaces, enjoys building next generation capabilities, and has experience with the latest advancements in autonomous systems, robot teams, and artificial intelligence. As a Mission Autonomy AI Engineer, you will operate at a system-wide level: shaping AI and autonomy architecture, setting technical direction, and delivering high-impact features. You will work closely with platform, autonomy, data, networking, user interface and simulation teams to ensure mission autonomy integrates seamlessly across products, teams, and deployment environments. This is a hands-on technical role with significant software development ownership and cross-team influence.

Requirements

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
8+ years of professional expertise in artificial intelligence or autonomous systems engineering
Practical experience with agentic AI platforms (e.g. LangGraph), protocols (e.g. MCP, A2A) and/or multi-agent/robot system engineering
Expert-level proficiency in programming languages such as C++, Python, and Rust
Strong foundation in modern software development best practices, including code quality, scalability, and maintainability standards
Strong testing fundamentals and experience developing automated tests (unit, integration, regression)
Deep familiarity with Linux-based development and deployment environments
Proven ability to lead technical projects from concept through production
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex systems clearly

Nice To Haves

Experience deploying advanced AI to cloud (e.g. AWS) and edge (e.g. NVIDIA Jetson family) platforms
Experience building a modern AI production systems (e.g. LLM, multi-modal models, RAG, Agentic)
Experience in autonomy stack engineering: perception, world modeling, planning and decision making, actuation and effects
Experience in collaborative multi-agent/robot systems engineering
Experience with communication management in distributed systems, especially in contested environments
Background in defense, automotive, robotics, or safety-critical software

Responsibilities

Contribute to the architecture of AI-driven mission autonomy that reduces cognitive burden on an operator, scales to large numbers of heterogeneous multi-domain platforms, and operates reliably over low-bandwidth, high-latency, and unreliable networks
Design and implement AI technologies for situational awareness, mission management and command and control in autonomous robot teams
Design and implement agentic AI for multiple roles at the enterprise, tactical edge and platform levels
Design and implement interaction protocols for task sharing, information sharing and coalition formation in robot teams
Collaborate with partner teams and stakeholders to ensure mission autonomy meets real-world requirements
Contribute to long-term technical strategy, roadmap planning, and architectural reviews
Document designs clearly for both engineering and integration audiences

Benefits

Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.
Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption.
A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires.
401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

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