Senior Embedded Imaging Software Engineer
Job Description
Own the end-to-end embedded imaging stack for Urban Sky EO and IR payloads, from sensor bring-up through CUDA image processing and deterministic high-rate data movement.
Responsibilities
- Own embedded firmware for EO and IR payloads, including sensor bring-up, driver development, and edge compute on NVIDIA Jetson platforms
- Integrate cameras and sensors over PCIe, MIPI/CSI, and USB; develop board-support packages for custom carrier boards, system-on-modules, and companion microcontrollers
- Own the L0 image processing pipeline in CUDA at the edge, including debayering, white balance, gamma, and camera/lens correction applied to raw frames before any codec
- Own IR-specific processing: NUC, bad-pixel replacement, and radiometric calibration
- Develop multi-frame super-resolution and related computational imaging capabilities
- Implement imagery metadata using KLV/MISB so each frame includes accurate pointing, position, and time
- Architect high-throughput vehicle data paths, with PCIe as a first-class specialty, plus routing infrastructure for imagery, telemetry, and C2 across satellite, tactical-radio, and IP links
- Optimize for latency, throughput, and determinism, while balancing pipeline compute against onboard ML workloads sharing the same CUDA resources
- Integrate payload firmware with the gimbal and motion-control stack, consuming pointing and autonomy commands from the broader payload software architecture
- Develop and maintain optical calibrations for EO/IR payloads: lens distortion modeling, vignetting/flat-field correction, and MTF/sharpness characterization for repeatable imagery quality across cameras and flights
- Implement motion and temporal compensation: frame-to-frame registration, stabilization, and temporal filtering to maximize effective image quality from a moving platform
Requirements
- Experience building end-to-end camera/imaging systems from sensor to downstream consumer
- Working experience with image processing pipelines (debayering, calibration, correction) and CUDA or other GPU-accelerated processing
- Experience with optical calibration and characterization, including distortion modeling, vignetting correction, and MTF/sharpness measurement, plus building the correction steps that apply them in a processing pipeline
- Familiarity with motion/temporal compensation techniques (registration, stabilization, temporal filtering) for imaging from moving platforms
- 5+ years developing embedded firmware in C/C++ for embedded Linux and/or bare-metal/RTOS systems
- Hands-on experience shipping on NVIDIA Jetson or comparable embedded Linux/SoC platforms
- Deep experience moving high-rate data over PCIe (driver, DMA, endpoint/root-complex level)
- Solid grounding in networking, data routing, and command-and-control infrastructure
- Strong hardware debugging skills and comfort working from schematics
- Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident
- Must be able to obtain and maintain a US security clearance (active clearance is a plus)
- Must be located near Denver, CO or willing to relocate; role is on-site at 4800 Race St
- Travel expected to support field events, exercises, and customer engagements
Technologies
- CUDA
- NVIDIA Jetson
- PCIe
- MIPI/CSI
- USB
- C/C++
- Embedded Linux
- Bare-metal/RTOS
- KLV/MISB
- Gimbal
- Satellite
- Tactical-radio
- IP links
Benefits
- Stock Options
- Medical, Vision and Dental
- Flexible PTO
- Cell Phone Bill Stipend
Nice-to-Haves / Preferred Skills
- IR/thermal imaging experience, including NUC and radiometric calibration
- GStreamer, V4L2, or other imaging/video pipeline frameworks
- Computational imaging techniques (super-resolution, stacking, HDR)
- Defense imagery and metadata standards (MISB/KLV, STANAG); defense or mission-critical development experience
- FPGA workflows or high-speed serial interfaces (SerDes, Aurora, MIPI)
- Experience with optics and optical hardware
- Experience with multi-sensor and multispectral fusion, including co-registering and combining imagery across sensors and bands into fused data products in partnership with downstream data teams
Location: Denver, CO (on-site, 4800 Race St)
Employment: Full-time, Salaried
Salary: USD 140,000 - 180,000 per year