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