At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build core components for autonomous drones, working hands-on with cutting-edge technology.
- Company: Join Seeing Systems, a pioneering team in drone autonomy and robotics.
- Benefits: Founding-level ownership, real-world impact, and a fast-paced startup environment.
- Other info: Exciting opportunity to shape engineering culture and work closely with founders.
- Why this job: Make a difference by developing innovative drone systems that operate where others fail.
- Qualifications: Strong software skills, preferably in Python, and experience with robotics or distributed systems.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 98000 £ per year.
About Us
Seeing Systems is building autonomous drone systems that can perceive, navigate, and act intelligently in complex real-world environments. We focus on advancing autonomy through monocular vision, sensor fusion, and robust system design, enabling drones to operate reliably where traditional systems fail. Seeing Systems was founded by brothers Matthew and Alex Le Maitre, combining deep experience across software, robotics, and defense.
The Role
We’re hiring a Software Engineering Intern to help design and build the core autonomy stack powering our drones. This is a deeply technical, hands-on role where you’ll work across perception, planning, and systems infrastructure—owning critical pieces of the product from day one. You’ll partner directly with the founders to define architecture, make key technical decisions, and ship systems that perform reliably both in simulation and in the field.
What You’ll Do
- Design and build core components of the autonomous drone stack
- Develop perception and state estimation systems using monocular vision and sensor fusion
- Work with and extend robotics frameworks like ROS / ROS2
- Build and test algorithms in simulation environments such as AirSim, and deploy to real systems
- Implement and optimize SLAM, localization, and navigation pipelines
- Interface with sensors, compute systems, and flight controllers
- Contribute to system architecture across software, hardware, and communications layers
- Rapidly prototype, test in the field, and iterate on real-world performance
- Leverage modern AI tools and workflows to accelerate development and experimentation
- Help define engineering culture, tooling, and hiring as a founding team member
Within your first 30 days, you'll deploy your first vision-based navigation update to a physical drone and test in the field, and within 90 days, you’ll be co-owner of our internal autonomy stack, responsible for large-scale development and direction of our primary software product.
What We're Looking For
- Strong software engineering skills, with Python preferred (C++, Rust or OCaml is a plus)
- Experience building robotics, real-time, or distributed systems
- Familiarity with ROS / ROS2 and working across simulation + hardware
- Strong intuition for systems, debugging, and performance tradeoffs
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity and moving quickly in a startup environment
- High ownership mindset—you build, test, and ship end-to-end
- Heavy user of AI tools (e.g., claude code) to accelerate output
- Willing to go outside with us and test in the real world!
Nice to Have
- Experience with SLAM, visual odometry, or 3D reconstruction
- Background in computer vision (especially monocular/depth estimation)
- Experience with sensor fusion (e.g., IMU + camera, Kalman filters)
- Familiarity with AirSim or similar simulation platforms
- Experience working with drones, UAV systems, or embedded systems
- RF or communications systems experience
- Prior startup or founding engineer experience
Why Join
- Founding-level ownership
- Opportunity to build cutting-edge autonomous systems from first principles
- Work on real-world robotics problems with immediate, tangible impact
- Tight iteration loop between simulation and deployment
- Small, high-agency team moving quickly
If you’re excited about building autonomous systems that operate in the real world—and want to help define the future of drone intelligence—we’d love to talk.
Drone Autonomy Engineer Intern in Christchurch employer: Seeing Systems (YC W26)
At Seeing Systems, we pride ourselves on being an innovative employer that empowers our team members to take ownership of their work from day one. As a Software Engineering Intern, you'll have the unique opportunity to collaborate directly with our founders in a fast-paced startup environment, contributing to cutting-edge autonomous drone technology that has real-world applications. Our culture fosters creativity and rapid iteration, ensuring that you not only grow your technical skills but also play a pivotal role in shaping the future of drone intelligence.
