Build and deploy the onboard autonomy and perception systems that enable Praetorian's interceptors to detect, track, and defeat threats in contested environments — from edge compute to live flight.

About Praetorian

Praetorian Aeronautics builds advanced autonomous aerial systems designed to protect and defend against the rapidly evolving threat of drone warfare.

Headquartered in Adelaide, and with offices in Melbourne and Darwin, we are developing an integrated ecosystem of counter-autonomy systems including:

• Arrow – an autonomous, high-speed, low-cost, VTOL interceptor for kinetic neutralisation of multiple UxS threat-types beyond visual range
• Dagger – a new class of modular, low-cost, autonomous, high-speed interceptor for long-range, high-altitude kinetic neutralisation of UxS targets
• Hadrian – an AI-enhanced command and control system enabling operators to deploy interceptors at scale
• Venator – a long-endurance autonomous mothership UAS capable of deploying interceptors and extending operational reach

Together, these systems enable defence operators to detect, assess, and defeat autonomous threats while maintaining situational dominance in contested environments.

Why This Role Matters

Autonomous interceptors operating beyond visual range in GPS-denied, communications-degraded environments cannot rely on human input at the moment of engagement. Everything depends on what is running onboard — the perception pipeline, the mission execution logic, the autonomy stack that holds it all together under real-world constraints.

This role owns that layer. You will take advanced GNC and AI algorithms and make them work reliably on real hardware, in real environments, against real targets. The bridge between research capability and fielded mission system runs through this role.

The Role

You will join the Effectors team, reporting to the CTO, to lead development and deployment of embedded autonomy and perception systems across Praetorian's interceptor platforms — Arrow, Dagger, and Venator.

Working at the intersection of embedded systems, computer vision, and edge AI, you will own the full stack from camera integration and tracking pipelines through to onboard mission execution and autonomous failover. Your work will be validated in simulation, proven in SITL/HITL, and tested in live flight environments.

What You'll Do

• Lead development of onboard computer vision and multi-object tracking pipelines for real-time aerial target detection and track maintenance
• Deploy and optimise AI-enabled perception systems onto embedded and edge-compute platforms under latency and compute constraints
• Integrate autonomy stacks with PX4/ArduPilot, onboard compute, and EO/IR payload systems across interceptor platforms
• Develop and validate mission execution behaviours for comms-degraded and disconnected operations
• Build and maintain SITL/HITL environments and lead embedded autonomy testing campaigns through to live flight trials
• Work closely with the Lead GNC Engineer to integrate guidance outputs into deployable onboard mission systems

What We're Looking For

• Strong experience developing and deploying computer vision, detection, and tracking systems in real-world environments
• Hands-on embedded systems experience — onboard compute, camera and sensor integration, edge AI deployment
• Proficiency in Python and C/C++
• Experience with SITL/HITL environments and progression through to live flight testing
• Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or related field — or equivalent practical experience

Nice to Have

• Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, or MAVLink ecosystems
• Background in EO/IR payload integration
• Familiarity with AI/ML tooling — ClearML, CVAT, or similar
• Exposure to Unreal Engine or synthetic environment generation
• Experience with resilient autonomy in degraded communications environments
• Defence or aerospace autonomy background

Benefits

• Employee share option plan (ESOP)
• Work on advanced autonomy and defence technology
• Join a small, highly technical engineering team
• Real ownership and influence as Praetorian scales
• Professional development and learning opportunities

Interested to find out more? Reach out to us at careers@praetorian-aeronautics.com or hit Apply.