Vision Systems Engineer

etc. is a team of techno-optimists and explorers focused on solving tough engineering problems and creating sustainable change. They are seeking a Vision Systems Engineer to own the detection, tracking, and target discrimination software stack for a space-based IR sensing program supporting US national security missions.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement adaptive detection algorithms against Earth-background and cold-space clutter, including background estimation, non-uniformity compensation, and track-before-detect approaches for high-velocity terminal engagement geometries
• Design and implement multi-target tracking systems — track initiation, maintenance, correlation, and termination — using Kalman filters (EKF, UKF), IMM filters, and advanced data association methods (JPDA, MHT), generating the full terminal guidance output suite: LOS angles and rates (Az/El) for proportional navigation, target position and relative velocity, range and range rate, predicted intercept point, track confidence and lock flag, and discrimination confidence for GNC handoff
• Develop and train lightweight CNN classifiers for target vs. decoy discrimination using radiometric imagery, optimized for real-time embedded inference via quantization, pruning, or equivalent techniques, with full synthetic and real data pipelines for training and validation
• Integrate algorithms into an existing end-to-end IR scene simulation framework, develop thermal signature models for synthetic training data, conduct Monte Carlo analysis and hardware-in-the-loop validation, and own performance verification against program requirements
• Define detector readout architectures, work with analog and digital electronics teams on ROIC interfaces, low-noise signal chains, and high-speed data paths to on-board processors
• Develop real-time image processing pipelines — non-uniformity correction, bad pixel replacement, background suppression, track-before-detect — on embedded FPGA and GPU platforms
• Build end-to-end radiometric and noise models (NEDT, D*, SNR, clutter metrics), develop test plans, and execute lab and field characterization campaigns