As the Founding Perception Engineer, you will architect the 3D perception stack for autonomous heavy machinery. Fusing LiDAR, cameras, and GNSS/IMU data, you will enable 50,000-pound vehicles to navigate unstructured, high-dust construction environments. This is a rare 0-to-1 opportunity to deploy real-world robotics that solve the global housing affordability crisis through infrastructure automation.
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Founding Perception Engineer at Crewline AI
Crewline AI is rebuilding humanity's ability to shape the world by turning 20-ton construction vehicles into intelligent robots. As Founding Perception Engineer, you'll move beyond the polished demos of on-road AVs to solve 'perception hell'—navigating dust, mud, and shifting terrain on live jobsites. Backed by $5.5M from Initialized Capital and top-tier founders, this role offers a massive $250-380k base and founding equity to someone ready to debug in the dirt and lead the first autonomous site prep contractor. If you want to see your code move mountains of steel in the real world, this is the 0-to-1 opportunity you've been looking for.
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Location
San Francisco, United States
Compensation
$250-380k + 1-3% Equity
Company
Crewline AI
Role overview
We’re building the world’s first fully autonomous civil‑construction company. Backed by top‑tier investors and led by second-time founders, we’re transforming a $400bn industry by turning bulldozers, excavators, drum rollers and dump trucks into intelligent robotic platforms. We retrofit existing heavy machines: crack open their CAN networks, leverage drive‑by‑wire interfaces, add multi‑sensor perception (LiDAR, stereo cameras, RTK GNSS, IMU) and layer supervised autonomy plus low‑latency tele‑operation. Mortenson and Watts (>$5bn combined revenue) are running our first pilots - you’ll ship code to their live construction sites within months.
What you will do
- Architect and build robust 3D perception pipelines for object detection, tracking, and scene understanding on NVIDIA Jetson Orin platforms.
- Design multi-sensor fusion algorithms integrating LiDAR, radar, cameras, and RTK GNSS to maintain spatial awareness in harsh, dynamic environments.
- Lead field validation efforts, deploying and iterating on algorithms directly on-site (often from the company’s mobile HQ, "The Endurance" RV).
Who this is a fit for
- Proven experience building production-grade perception systems at top-tier AV companies (e.g., Waymo, Cruise, Zoox) or harsh-environment robotics firms.
- Strong founding DNA with a history of owning 0-to-1 initiatives and a pragmatic "hacker" mindset that prioritizes reliable, working code over academic demos.
- Exceptional technical depth in sensor fusion, SLAM, or deep learning, ideally supported by elite academic credentials or experience in mission-critical systems.
Why this role is remarkable
- Ship to real-world construction sites within months, working with industry giants like Mortenson and Watts on live jobsites rather than running endless simulations.
- Join a high-caliber founding team led by an Oxford CS PhD and ex-Amazon ML engineer, backed by $5.5M from Initialized Capital and unicorn founders.
- Tackle "perception hell"—solving unique challenges like deformable terrain, heavy dust, and GNSS dropouts that on-road autonomous vehicle companies never encounter.
How Jack & Jill work together
I get to know what you’re great at, then find roles you’d never find yourself.Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.
I recruit from Jack’s network and make the intro when I spot a great match.And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.
Jack gets to know what you're great at and what you want next, then searches 15 million jobs daily and helps you discover roles at companies like this.
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What happens next?
Jack’s an AI agent for job searching and career coaching. He works for you.
Jill is the AI recruiter working for the company. She recruits from Jack’s network.
If your profile’s a match and Crewline AI wants to meet, Jill will make the intro. In the meantime, Jack will send you excellent alternatives.