aim

Principal Perception Hardware Engineer

Seattle
Full-time
$200,000-$250,000
Posted Oct 15, 2026

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Skills

Leadership

Job description

ABOUT US

AIM builds autonomy for the real world: robots that move mountains. Our systems bring together software, hardware, and robotics to turn heavy equipment into intelligent machines that reshape how earthmoving is done.

We're looking for a Principal Perception Hardware Engineer to own the sensor system architecture for our autonomy platform, from choosing sensing modalities and sensors through placement, requirements, validation, and production readiness. You will set the technical direction across hardware, perception, and vehicle teams, make the final calls on sensor-suite trade-offs that shape our multi-year roadmap, and help build our sensor systems team and capability from the ground up.

ABOUT YOU

You are comfortable with ambiguity. Off-road heavy equipment has no established sensing playbook, and you're excited to write one: defining the standards, not just following them.

You own outcomes in the field. You go to job sites, diagnose problems on the machine, and stay accountable for results through deployment rather than handing off a design.

You make pragmatic decisions. You balance the ideal architecture against cost, ruggedness, retrofit constraints, and speed, and you make clear calls without perfect data.

You influence without authority. You align perception, hardware, software, and field teams on sensor and compute decisions, and you explain trade-offs clearly to leadership.

You think at the level of the whole system. You turn what autonomy needs into concrete sensor and compute system requirements, and you set standards that guide the company's long-term direction while developing the engineers around you.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

Sensor system architecture

•Own the end-to-end sensor architecture for the autonomy platform: modality selection, sensor selection, placement, and integration.

•Run trade studies on coverage, occlusion, performance, cost, and reliability, and make the final call on sensor-suite trade-offs.

•Turn product, business , customer and autonomy needs into sensor and subsystem requirements.

•Select the compute platform together with the embedded, software, and perception teams.

Validation, calibration, and characterization

•Design test campaigns and define acceptance criteria for sensors and the full sensing system.

•Build calibration and characterization processes that hold up on real machines in the field.

•Root-cause failures across the hardware and software boundary.

From prototype to field deployment

•Take the sensor suite from early prototypes through deployment on heavy equipment at real job sites.

•Design for ruggedness, retrofit onto existing machines, and degraded conditions such as dust, weather, and vibration.

•Work with suppliers to source, qualify, and support sensors and components.

Technical leadership and team building

•Set technical direction across hardware, perception, and vehicle teams, and define the sensing standards that guide our multi-year roadmap.

•Help build the sensor system engineering capability from the ground up, and develop the engineers for it.

YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS

In your first three months, you will:

1. Turn product and autonomy requirements into engineering designs for a new hardware architecture, including compute and sensing component choices, against an aggressive cost target.

2. Build a first prototype of the hardware superstructure and mount it on a machine at our proving grounds.

3. Develop the plan to verify and validate that the hardware meets all of its requirements.

QUALIFICATIONS

•Experience at Principal level owning sensor systems for autonomous vehicles or robots: setting technical direction across teams and defining standards that shape long-term product direction.

•Sensor-suite architecture, requirements definition, and trade studies, including sensor sensor selection, placement, and coverage and occlusion analysis.

•Hands-on experience with cameras and LiDAR.

•Sensor validation, calibration, and characterization: designing test campaigns, defining acceptance criteria, and root-causing failures across the hardware and software boundary.

•A track record of taking a sensor suite from prototype into fielded deployment on real vehicles or robots, not only in the lab or simulation.

•Experience selecting compute platforms in partnership with embedded, software, and perception teams.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

•Experience with radar or other optical sensor modalities

•Expertise in sensor cleaning systems for degraded conditions.

•Experience leading data-collection test campaigns with prototype vehicles in new operating domains.

•Supplier management for sensors and related components.

•Experience helping build a sensor or hardware team as it scales.

•Base Salary Range - $200,000-$250,000