Senior SLAM Engineer

About UNISON

UNISON is a small team of passionate people from companies like Meta, Sony, and Apple, as well as research labs like the IARAI. Based in the SF Bay Area and backed by some of the world’s best investors, we're working hard to create products we would proudly recommend to our friends and family.

We are building a unified reality headset that allows users to plunge into and resurface from virtual worlds with newfound value. We see living between virtual and physical worlds as a tool for creating, storytelling, and sharing—not hindering your total lived experience. You can learn more about our product, team, careers, and worldviews at unison.co.

About The Role

We are searching for a dedicated Software Engineer specializing in Visual-Inertial SLAM (VI-SLAM) to take ownership, design, develop, and maintain the VI-SLAM of our cutting-edge headset. This role is pivotal in enhancing our current VI-SLAM and metrics, defining and implementing robust test scenarios, and refining our simulation tool. You will also be entrusted with creating benchmarks to monitor the system's performance and hardware specifications.

Your Responsibilities

• Develop a VI-SLAM system utilizing multiple cameras and IMUs within a constrained power budget.

• Design and execute stress test scenarios to monitor system performance under challenging conditions.

• Profile the system, assess the accuracy and uncertainties of all sensors and models, and identify potential model pitfalls.

• Upgrade our SLAM simulation tool to encompass all stress test parameters.

• Address hardware-related questions that might influence software, such as camera specifications and positioning.

• Collaborate closely with the hardware team, verifying and suggesting changes to hardware requirements, specifically for SLAM.

• Collaborate with the team, building dedicated SLAM tools for our perception stack and data servers.

Your Qualifications

• At least 5+ years of experience in SLAM.

• Proven experience in real-time/production scale VI-SLAM workflows.

• A track record in hardware-oriented projects spanning UAV/Drones/AR/VR/Autonomous Vehicles realms.

• Candidates must demonstrate expertise across all SLAM subsystems, including, but not limited to, feature extraction, feature matching, pose estimation, loop closure, and map optimization. They must also provide evidence of direct involvement in developing, optimizing, and significantly enhancing these subsystems in a VI-SLAM context.

• Advanced understanding and practical experience integrating and optimizing SLAM subsystems in hardware-constrained environments are required. This includes proven capability in customizing algorithms for power efficiency without compromising the accuracy or robustness of the VI-SLAM solution. Experience with optimizing SLAM algorithms for different computational architectures (e.g., CPU, GPU, DSP, or specialized hardware accelerators) is also required.

• Familiarity with the simulation of sensors involved in a VI-SLAM system.

• Experience with deep learning-based 3D vision algorithms applied to real-world challenges like VI-SLAM, 3D perception, obstacle avoidance, or 3D Reconstruction.

• Experience in data fusion techniques involving IMU, cameras, IR, ToF, and other sensors.

• Proficiency in C++, embedded systems, and Computer Vision.

• Demonstrated capability to own projects from conception to completion, showing initiative, creativity, and a problem-solving approach.

Why UNISON?

UNISON offers competitive salaries and equity packages, giving all employees an ownership stake in what we're working hard to build. You will also receive flexible PTO, 401k with employer matching, excellent 100% employer-paid health benefits, and more.

We are growing quickly, so if you’re interested in joining us but don’t see a job that fits what you’re looking for or if your experience doesn’t quite meet the criteria, please feel free to reach out at [email protected]. We are happy to connect.

UNISON is committed to equity in our hiring practices. If you think you may require an accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, please send a request to: [email protected]. All requests for accommodations are treated discreetly and confidentially, as practical, and permitted by law.

At UNISON, we are committed to mitigating bias and providing an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all qualified applicants and teammates based solely on business needs and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, national, social or ethnic origin, religion, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation, and related medical conditions), ancestry, age, physical and mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression, marital/familial status, citizenship status, military/veteran status, and any other legally protected status under federal, state, or local anti-discrimination laws.