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Updated 14 hours ago

Posted 2 days ago • October 7, 2026

Senior Human-Machine Teaming Engineer

Merlin Labs

Boston, United States

engineeringseniorfull-timehybriduasunmannedflight-testintegrationdefenseautonomycomputer-vision
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Role details

Job description

Merlin (NASDAQ: MRLN) is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company building a non-human pilot to deliver full-stack autonomy for any aircraft from takeoff to touchdown. The Merlin Pilot autonomy system powers a growing range of aircraft and mission profiles and has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from Merlin's global flight test facilities, including Kerikeri, New Zealand; Smithfield, Rhode Island; and soon, Bedford, Massachusetts. Headquartered in Boston, Merlin is expanding its organization to accelerate the development and deployment of its autonomy platform, helping customers solve some of aviation's most pressing challenges, from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the world's leading investors prior to its public listing, Merlin continues to advance the certification and commercialization of autonomous flight across commercial and defense aviation.
Merlin (NASDAQ: MRLN) is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company building a non-human pilot to deliver full-stack autonomy for any aircraft from takeoff to touchdown. The Merlin Pilot autonomy system powers a growing range of aircraft and mission profiles and has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from Merlin's global flight test facilities, including Kerikeri, New Zealand; Smithfield, Rhode Island; and soon, Bedford, Massachusetts. Headquartered in Boston, Merlin is expanding its organization to accelerate the development and deployment of its autonomy platform, helping customers solve some of aviation's most pressing challenges, from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the world's leading investors prior to its public listing, Merlin continues to advance the certification and commercialization of autonomous flight across commercial and defense aviation.

About You

You are an experienced engineer with a background in autonomous systems, aviation, or robotics who is motivated to build software that enables effective human-machine and machine-machine teaming. You’re excited to enhance how humans interact with complex automated systems. You are comfortable with either leading technical projects or contributing independently to software development and experimentation. You take pride in writing high-quality, maintainable code, and are driven to improve interactive teaming behaviors through human subject testing and integration into real airborne systems.

Responsibilities

    • Contribute to the technical direction and implementation of capabilities supporting human-machine and machine-machine teaming for autonomous airborne systems.

    • Design, develop, and deploy novel teaming capabilities that measurably enhance the performance, safety, and resilience of human-machine teams.

    • Propose, design, and execute applied research and human subject experiments to evaluate human-machine teaming capabilities in realistic operations.

    • Contribute to simulation, integration, and flight test activities to validate autonomy software in relevant environments.

    • Write, test, document and review code according to Merlin’s development standards.

    • Collaborate across Merlin to develop novel systems to solve the toughest problems in aviation and autonomy.

Qualifications

    • Degree in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics Engineering, or a related subject.

    • 5+ years of professional experience (including graduate work) developing software for airborne autonomous systems.

    • Deep experience in one or more of the following:

      • Human-machine interaction for crewed aircraft and/or UAS

      • Single- and multi-vehicle autonomy, resource allocation, and decision making algorithms

      • Software development for physiological signal monitoring

      • Algorithmic modeling for human cognitive state analysis

      • Experience in modern software development workflows and practices, including version control, pipelines, and unit testing, and peer review.

      • Experience with overall product development cycle, including design, testing, and troubleshooting at the system level as well as at the software component level.

      • Experience with Linux and open-source development tools.

      • Proficiency writing code in Python.

      • Experience with technical writing.

      • Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to learn and contribute across different technical domains.

Nice to Have

    • Proficiency in C++ and ROS.

    • Experience designing focused research plans and experiments to evaluate human-machine and machine-machine teaming effectiveness.

    • Experience with perception systems, sensor fusion, world modeling concepts, or Bayesian probabilistic methods.

    • Experience with proposal writing and technical roadmap development.

    • Familiarity with simulation software, especially aircraft simulation.

    • Experience with hardware and software integration and debugging.

    • Experience with flight testing (uncrewed or crewed aircraft).

    • Pilot license and flight experience is a plus.

Logistics

  • Willing to travel 10-20% of the time to support team meetings, integration events, and flight testing.
This position is based on-site at Merlin HQ in Boston, MA.
Once you’re here, you’ll enjoy a variety of on-site perks designed to make your workday enjoyable and convenient. These include catered lunches featuring a rotating menu of delicious options, an assortment of snacks to keep you fueled throughout the day, and a selection of beverages, including coffee, tea, and other drinks, to keep you refreshed.
Our goal is to create an environment where you can thrive both professionally and personally.
Merlin Labs offers an innovative, entrepreneurial, and team-focused startup environment. We also offer a top-notch benefits package (health, dental, life, flexible paid time off, and 401k with match) and work/life integration. Being part of the Merlin team allows you to become part of a small team that supports professional development while working together to achieve our mission.
Merlin Labs is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, military service or obligation or disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All job offers are contingent upon the candidate passing background and reference checks.
At this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or consider candidates who require visa transfers. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.
In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.
If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to: people@merlinlabs.com
Merlin Labs does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from candidates.

Role context

This Senior Human-Machine Teaming Engineer role at Merlinlabs sits in the engineering track within defense and autonomy. The position is tied to Boston, United States and is posted 2 days ago, which signals active hiring intent rather than archived demand. Compensation is not disclosed in the source listing, so candidates should verify range details directly with the employer. Combined with the live company and role links on this page, this listing gives candidates a direct path to compare equivalent openings by employer, market, and role focus.

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Boston, United States

Location

Boston, United States

Approximate role location based on the employer listing.

Boston, United States

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