Robotics Technical Leader - ROS, autonomy, perception, and machine learning

Location: Sydney, NSW

$Generous salary on offer + ESOP

About the job The Company We build autonomous drones for large scale outdoor operations, replacing manual and vehicle based methods with drones that navigate, monitor, and operate independently in the field.

Our team is small and highly technical, already deployed with real customers. Expect to write code at a desk and in the field, we work hands on and close to the product.

We're looking for a Robotics Technical Leader/Head of Engineering to lead technical decisions and a small engineering team across ROS, autonomy, perception, and machine learning.

The role You will build our robotics stack, from control architecture through to fleet orchestration, and lead a small team. This is the most senior technical hire on the team right now and you will coach and mentor others.

You will design the autonomy, perception, and control layers that let autonomous drones operate independently across large, unstructured outdoor environments. You will also own the systems that run routine autonomous inspections, keep hardware reliable across a wide range of environmental conditions, and ensure the whole stack, including onboard perception and ML pipelines, holds up when it's deployed far from anyone who can help debug it.

What we're looking for

Must haves

- You have built something that customers have used
- Deep ROS expertise




- Strong autonomy and control engineering fundamentals
- Experience with perception systems (sensor fusion, SLAM, computer vision, or similar)
- Practical experience applying machine learning in robotics contexts
- A degree in robotics, mechatronics, or electrical/electronic engineering
- A track record of shipping autonomous systems into production, not just research demos
- Comfortable owning a technical domain end to end with limited oversight

Strong advantages

- Experience deploying robots in unstructured outdoor environments
- Exposure to drone autonomy or aerial robotics
- Prior work in deep tech or adjacent hardware/software systems
- Experience managing and coordinating engineering teams

The Work
- Autonomy, perception, and control layers for autonomous drone operations
- Navigation and path planning across large, unstructured outdoor environments
- Perception and machine learning pipelines for reliable autonomous operation during routine field inspections
- Fleet management architecture as we scale across multiple markets
- Onboard systems that perform under real world conditions, including variable terrain, weather, and connectivity dropouts

The Setup
- Five days a week in office
- Regular field deployments to customer sites (domestic and potentially international)
- Work directly with (and report to) the founder
- Market-competitive salary, meaningful early stage equity

Please reach out to [email protected] for more info

📌 Robotics Technical Leader - ROS, autonomy, perception, and machine learning (Southern Sydney)
🏢 ProFound People
📍 Southern Sydney