Mission Autonomy Engineer

About Forterra

At Forterra, we are unleashing autonomy at scale to transform the battlefield. Our mission is to build the foundational platforms that enable an intelligent ecosystem to coordinate, adapt, and execute with speed and precision even in the uncertainty and disruption of modern conflict. In an era marked by rapid technological change and evolving threats, we design for flexibility, survivability, and operational dominance.

Forterra delivers weapons, sensors, and battlefield effects through integrated autonomous networks reaching operational areas faster, safer, and without placing human lives at risk. Our systems operate with distributed control, dynamic routing, and real-time responsiveness, enabling sustained advantage across complex mission environments.

About the role

About Mission Autonomy 

Mission autonomy transforms how robotic teams plan, adapt, and accomplish objectives with minimal human intervention. Forterra is pioneering mission autonomy to reduce cognitive load, enable scalable multi-domain operations, and preserve commander intent in the most challenging environments. Our mission autonomy drives the future of warfare by enabling new and creative capabilities. 

About this job 

We are seeking an Engineer to help design and build Forterra’s core mission autonomy capabilities. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who thrives in ambiguous problem spaces, enjoys building next generation capabilities, and has experience with the latest advancements in autonomous systems, robot teams, and artificial intelligence. 

As a Mission Autonomy AI Engineer, you will operate at a system-wide level: shaping AI and autonomy architecture, setting technical direction, and delivering high-impact features. You will work closely with platform, autonomy, data, networking, user interface and simulation teams to ensure mission autonomy integrates seamlessly across products, teams, and deployment environments.  

This is a hands-on technical role with significant software development ownership and cross-team influence.

What you'll do

• Contribute to the architecture of AI-driven mission autonomy that reduces cognitive burden on an operator, scales to large numbers of heterogeneous multi-domain platforms, and operates reliably over low-bandwidth, high-latency, and unreliable networks 

• Design and implement AI technologies for situational awareness, mission management and command and control in autonomous robot teams 

• Design and implement agentic AI for multiple roles at the enterprise, tactical edge and platform levels 

• Design and implement interaction protocols for task sharing, information sharing and coalition formation in robot teams   

• Collaborate with partner teams and stakeholders to ensure mission autonomy meets real-world requirements 

• Contribute to long-term technical strategy, roadmap planning, and architectural reviews 

• Document designs clearly for both engineering and integration audiences 

• What Sets This Role Apart 

• You’ll lead projects and own subsystems 

• You’ll build software that operates in real-world, high-consequence environments 

• You’ll influence architecture, standards, and long-term technical direction and develop a core piece of Forterra infrastructure. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience 

• 8+ years of professional expertise in artificial intelligence or autonomous systems engineering 

• Practical experience with agentic AI platforms (e.g. LangGraph), protocols (e.g. MCP, A2A) and/or multi-agent/robot system engineering 

• Expert-level proficiency in programming languages such as C++, Python, and Rust 

• Strong foundation in modern software development best practices, including code quality, scalability, and maintainability standards 

• Strong testing fundamentals and experience developing automated tests (unit, integration, regression) 

• Deep familiarity with Linux-based development and deployment environments 

• Proven ability to lead technical projects from concept through production 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex systems clearly 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience deploying advanced AI to cloud (e.g. AWS) and edge (e.g. NVIDIA Jetson family) platforms 

• Experience building a modern AI production systems (e.g. LLM, multi-modal models, RAG, Agentic) 

• Experience in autonomy stack engineering: perception, world modeling, planning and decision making, actuation and effects 

• Experience in collaborative multi-agent/robot systems engineering 

• Experience with communication management in distributed systems, especially in contested environments 

• Background in defense, automotive, robotics, or safety-critical software 

US Salary Range
 $180,000 - $250,000

Location

On-Site in Clarksburg, MD 

10-25% travel required 

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.  
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption. 
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires. 
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

CLEARANCE ELIGIBILITY - This position may require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. For more information about U.S. Security Clearances: click here.   

Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer, providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in all personnel practices. Forterrans are unique, talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain.  

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any factor, including veteran and disability status, and criminal history, in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws.

Forterra is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.

To see Forterra’s candidate data privacy policy, please visit Forterra Legal | Job Applicant Privacy Notice.