Software Engineer, Location & Motion (Inertial Navigation / GNSS)

Rivet Industries

$120K — $145K *
Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • BS + 8 years, MS + 5 years, or PhD + 3 years of experience in navigation or a related field.
  • Proven track record of delivering production navigation solutions.
  • Hands-on expertise with inertial sensing and sensor fusion.
  • In-depth knowledge of error-state estimation and Kalman filtering methods.
  • Proficient in C++ and Python for embedded software development.
  • Strong grasp of coordinate frames and attitude representations.
  • Experience with sensor integration and validation at the system level.

Responsibilities

  • Own and manage the 9-axis inertial sensing system, ensuring accurate calibration and synchronization.
  • Develop reliable navigation solutions that mitigate sensor errors and adapt to environmental challenges.
  • Oversee GNSS integration, focusing on performance enhancement and signal quality assessment.
  • Design the navigation fusion estimator for continuous position and velocity solutions.
  • Establish calibration processes for production and field use to ensure accuracy and validation.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams on sensor integration and production testing needs.
  • Define navigation and perception system interfaces for seamless operation.

Benefits

  • Unlimited paid time off (PTO).
  • Eligible for equity.
  • Comprehensive benefits package.
Full Job Description
Summary

We're looking for an experienced engineer to own the navigation and positioning stack for Rivet's head-worn and body-worn systems. You will be responsible for turning inertial and GNSS sensor data into a robust, continuous estimate of position and orientation across challenging real-world environments. This includes sensor calibration and characterization, inertial navigation, GNSS integration, and the estimation algorithms that bring these inputs together. You will work closely with our perception team to define how navigation and visual tracking complement one another and provide a stable experience to downstream systems. This is a highly hands-on role spanning algorithms, embedded software, hardware integration, laboratory testing, and field validation.

Responsibilities
  • Own the end-to-end 9-axis inertial sensing system, including accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer calibration, synchronization, coordinate frames, and attitude estimation.
  • Develop robust heading and inertial navigation solutions that account for sensor errors, environmental disturbances, temperature variation, and platform effects.
  • Own GNSS integration and performance, including receiver configuration, raw measurement analysis, signal quality characterization, and resilience to degraded or unreliable positioning environments.
  • Design and maintain the navigation fusion estimator, combining inertial, GNSS, and other available measurements into a continuous position, velocity, and attitude solution with well-characterized uncertainty.
  • Develop calibration and characterization methods for production and field use, including sensor characterization, per-unit calibration, and automated validation.
  • Partner with hardware, firmware, mechanical, and manufacturing teams on sensor selection, placement, mechanical integration, power and thermal constraints, and production test requirements.
  • Define interfaces between the navigation and perception systems, including transitions between absolute navigation and relative visual tracking.
  • Build the testing and validation infrastructure needed to measure navigation performance, replay real-world data, diagnose failures, and prevent regressions across releases.


Requirements
  • BS + 8 years, MS + 5 years, or PhD + 3 years of experience in navigation, aerospace/GNC, robotics, geomatics, or a closely related field.
  • Demonstrated experience owning and shipping a production navigation solution that provides position and attitude estimates.
  • Strong hands-on experience with inertial sensing, magnetometer calibration, heading estimation, GNSS, and sensor fusion.
  • Deep understanding of strapdown inertial navigation, error-state estimation, Kalman filtering and/or factor-graph methods, observability, and uncertainty modeling.
  • Proficiency in C++ and Python, with experience developing production software for embedded or resource-constrained systems.
  • Strong understanding of coordinate frames and attitude representations, including ECEF, ENU/NED, body and sensor frames, quaternions, and alignment concepts.
  • Experience integrating sensors at the hardware and system level, including sensor selection, placement, calibration, timing/synchronization, and embedded interfaces.
  • Comfortable working hands-on in the lab and field, designing experiments, collecting and analyzing sensor data, and validating navigation performance against ground truth.


Preferred Qualifications

Experience with head- or body-worn navigation, XR/AR/VR systems, pedestrian inertial navigation, defense or resilient PNT applications, production sensor subsystems, or manufacturing calibration and test. Ability to obtain a U.S. security clearance is also a plus.

Compensation may vary within the posted range based on relevant experience, skills, education, and other job-related factors. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for equity and other forms of compensation. Eligible employees also receive a competitive benefits package, including unlimited PTO.

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