Senior Robotics & Autonomy Engineer

About Ottopia Defense

We're building the intelligence powering the Unmanned Ground Force.

Ottopia Defense, an Ondas company, is an AI-native Deep Tech company revolutionizing ground defense through software, hardware, robotics, and autonomy. Our technologies span autonomous navigation, resilient teleoperation, intelligent mission command, and human-machine collaboration, transforming fleets and robots into a coordinated, intelligent force. We combine the ambition, agility, and ownership of a startup with the resources and global reach of public US company. We hire AI-native people only: exceptional builders who embrace AI as a fundamental part of how they think, create, and solve problems. People who thrive on bold challenges, move fast, and are driven to build technology that changes the world.

About The Role

Ottopia Defense is looking for a Senior Robotics & Autonomy Engineer to develop autonomous capabilities for physical robotic platforms operating in complex real-world environments.

The role spans localization, navigation, motion planning, control, mission execution, and recovery behaviors.

You will work on multiple platform types, including UGVs, retrofitted vehicles, industrial machinery, and legged robots, with a strong focus on off-road environments and operation where GPS may be degraded, unreliable, or unavailable.

Responsibilities

• Develop localization and navigation capabilities for robotic platforms.
• Develop autonomy for GPS-denied and GPS-degraded environments.
• Implement and integrate SLAM, visual/inertial localization, LiDAR localization, and sensor-fusion solutions.
• Develop global and local path-planning algorithms.
• Develop trajectory generation and obstacle-avoidance capabilities.
• Build autonomous mission-execution capabilities such as waypoint navigation and multi-stage missions.
• Implement recovery, replanning, and fallback behaviors.
• Integrate autonomy algorithms with physical platform controllers.
• Support transitions between autonomous operation and teleoperation.
• Adapt algorithms to different platform dynamics and mobility constraints.
• Support autonomous and teleoperated mission-planning workflows.
• Test algorithms in simulation and on physical robots.
• Analyze field failures and systematically improve robustness.
  
  

• Strong robotics background.
• Strong C++ skills.
• Experience with localization, navigation, planning, or control.
• Strong understanding of coordinate systems, transformations, and 3D geometry.
• Experience with sensor fusion.
• Experience with ROS / ROS2.
• Strong mathematical and algorithmic foundations.
• Experience working with physical robotic systems.
  
  

• SLAM.
• Visual Odometry / Visual-Inertial Odometry.
• LiDAR-based localization.
• EKF / UKF / factor graphs.
• Nav2.
• A*, Hybrid A*, RRT, or optimization-based planning.
• MPC or other trajectory-control approaches.
• Behavior Trees and mission planners.
• GNSS / RTK.
• Off-road autonomous navigation.
• Autonomous mission planning.
• UGVs or defense robotics.