Navigation Software 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

The Forterra navigation team seeks a Navigation Software Engineer to help build and validate the localization systems that let our autonomous vehicles know where they are, reliably and in every environment. This spans the full navigation stack: real-time sensor-fusion filters that combine IMU, GNSS, radar and wheel odometry; GNSS processing, including carrier-phase techniques and integrity monitoring; sensor calibration; and the assured localization that must keep working when GNSS is degraded or denied. The Navigation team partners closely with the autonomy, safety, perception and vehicle integration teams to turn research-grade estimation into software that runs on fielded vehicles.

Forterra is a fast-growing company at the early stages of growth. Consistent with this fast growth, members of our Navigation team must be resourceful, rigorous, and eager to take ownership of hard technical problems. The Navigation Engineer role will require strong fundamentals in estimation and C++ to work within a large, real-time codebase, with a singular focus on helping Forterra deploy its technology into operational settings. In addition to developing and tuning filters, you will work across the whole lifecycle: designing validation with log replay and regression metrics, running field tests, diagnosing failures from real vehicle data, and defining the health and integrity outputs that safety functions depend

on. Experience across all these areas is not expected, but a willingness to learn and adapt is.

What you'll do

• Be a key member of Forterra's small, dynamic Navigation team.
• Take responsibility for well-scoped pieces of the navigation stack that directly affect how our vehicles perform in the field.
• Develop and improve sensor-fusion estimators. Implement and tune Kalman-filter-based navigation (error-state EKF, UKF, GSF) that fuses IMU, GNSS, Doppler radar and wheel odometry, including operation when GNSS is degraded or denied.
• Work on GNSS processing. Contribute to carrier-phase techniques such as TDCP, dual-antenna heading and RTK, and to the integrity, jamming and spoofing monitoring that decides when GNSS can be trusted.
• Prove that it works. Capture vehicle data, run deterministic replays and regression metrics, inject faults, and report results against clear pass/fail tolerances.
• Support calibration and field testing. Help estimate and verify sensor lever arms and mounts, characterize sensors, and debug navigation issues from real vehicle logs.
• Build safety-relevant outputs. Implement the health status, warnings and output interfaces that fault- Number of headcount you want to hire? management and safety functions depend on.
• Collaborate across teams. Work with the autonomy, safety, perception and vehicle integration engineers, write clear design notes, and take part in code reviews.

Minimum Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience developing navigation, state estimation or sensor-fusion software, in industry or in graduate research (more senior engineers are also encouraged to apply; the position may be adjusted based on experience).
• BS or MS in Electrical, Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics or a related field.
• Strong C++ skills and a working knowledge of Kalman filtering, INS and GNSS.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on field testing with autonomous vehicles, robots or aircraft.
• Navigation software that has shipped on a fielded platform, not only in simulation.
• Experience with GNSS-denied navigation, or with GNSS jamming and spoofing mitigation.
• Combination of industry and research experience in estimation, e.g. a thesis on sensor fusion followed by product work.
• Experience working on defense or safety-critical programs.

US Salary Range
 $120,000 - $150,000

Location

Clarksburg, MD

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.