Systems Engineer (Acoustic)

Location: Onsite — Austin, TX

Employment Type: Full-Time

Job Title: Senior Microphone Array Hardware Engineer

Company Overview

We are a funded startup building autonomous machines for defense markets. Our first product is designed to counter small, fast FPV suicide drones — also known as Group 1 / sUAS, similar to those seen in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Our robots require world-class perception and decision-making. If you love turning cutting-edge engineering into field-ready capability, this is your playground.

Position Summary

We are seeking a Senior Microphone Array Hardware Engineer to build the acoustic platform that makes everything else possible. You will be responsible for the "ears" of our autonomous csUAS platforms, selecting microphones, designing enclosures, and solving synchronization challenges to ship a robust real-time capture stack that works in harsh outdoor environments.

Essential Duties

• Architect the Array: Lead microphone selection (self-noise, dynamic range) and geometry tradeoffs (spacing vs. aliasing) while making critical mechanical decisions regarding wind protection and vibration isolation.

• Own Multichannel Acquisition: Manage clocking, sync, drift, and channel mapping to ensure "it never randomly breaks" reliability and strict latency budgets.

• Design Calibration: Develop rigorous procedures for phase/gain matching, timing offsets, and automated health tests to account for temperature and aging.

• Ship Baseline Pipelines: Implement dependable first-pass bearing/confidence outputs (e.g., GCC-PHAT, SRP-PHAT) with proper instrumentation.

• Build Field Tooling: Create infrastructure for logging, replay, and ground-truth procedures to enable rapid failure triage and regression testing.

• Product Integration: Deliver real-time modules with clear interfaces and diagnostics that integrate seamlessly with the broader autonomy stack.

Requirements

• Experience: Proven track record of shipping real-time audio or timing-sensitive sensor systems into production or field deployments.

• Acoustic Mastery: Hands-on understanding of mic physics, including SNR, directivity, propagation/multipath, and how wind/handling noise appears in logs.

• Programming: Strong implementation skills in C++ or Rust, with Python for tooling and analysis.

• Hardware Systems: Experience with digital mic interfaces (I2S/TDM/PDM), multichannel ADCs, and PTP concepts on embedded Linux/Jetson platforms.

• Compliance: This position requires access to export-controlled information under ITAR. Only U.S. persons are permitted to access such information.

• Background: Must be willing to submit to a background check.

Nice-to-Have

• Prior defense startup experience

• Security clearance or ability to obtain one

• Passion for building robots or engineering projects as a hobby

Benefits

• Competitive salary + early equity

• Opportunity to build systems the Department of Defense actively needs

• New lab equipped with Jetsons, scopes, and 3‑D printers

• Direct influence on product and technology roadmap

• 100% employer paid health, dental, and vision insurance

• 50% employer paid health, dental, and vision insurance for dependents

• Unlimited PTO

• Relocation assistance

About the interview

1. Application screen phone call (30 min)

2. Virtual interview with co-founder #1 (30 min via MS Teams)

3. Paid take-home ($500, ~4-8 hours)

4. Review work

5. Virtual interview with co-founder #2 (45 min via MS Teams)

6. In-person visit to Austin/Offer