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Director, AI Core Software

Merlin Labs

Job Location:

Boston, NH - USA

Yearly Salary: $ 252000 - 360000

Posted: 18 June 2026 (30+ days ago)

Application Deadline: 16 November 2026

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

About Merlin:

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 Merlins global flight test facilities including Kerikeri New Zealand; Quonset Point 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 aviations most pressing challenges from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the worlds 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 a technically deep software leader who has shipped production AI or autonomy systems in a safety-critical domain. You thrive at the intersection of rigorous engineering and ambitious product vision and you know how to build and motivate world-class teams working on hard long-horizon problems.

You hold yourself and your team to the highest standards of software quality and safety not because the process demands it but because you genuinely care about the integrity of what you build. Youre equally comfortable reviewing a pull request debating system architecture and presenting a roadmap to the executive team. You want your work to matter and theres nothing more meaningful to you than putting reliable autonomous systems into the sky.

Responsibilities:

Define and drive the technical strategy for Merlins AI Core platform spanning perception sensor fusion decision-making planning and control.
Lead grow and mentor a multi-disciplinary team of AI engineers robotics engineers and software engineers working on flight-critical autonomy software.
Collaborate with the VP of Engineering and CTO to translate company-level objectives into clear achievable technical roadmaps with well-defined milestones.
Own the architecture of the AI Core stack from data pipelines and model training infrastructure through to real-time onboard inference and control.
Establish and enforce engineering standards code quality practices and safety review processes appropriate for an aviation-grade software system.
Partner closely with Flight Operations Systems Engineering and Certification teams to ensure AI Core software meets FAA and regulatory requirements.
Drive integration between AI Core components and the broader avionics and vehicle management systems.
Recruit senior engineering talent and build a culture of technical excellence ownership and psychological safety.
Represent the AI Core team in cross-functional planning risk reviews and stakeholder communications.
Track and evaluate emerging research and open-source developments relevant to autonomous flight and translate promising work into product opportunities.

Qualifications:

10 years of software engineering experience with at least 5 years in Physical AI technical leadership and engineering management roles.
Proven track record of shipping production grade AI based autonomy in a safety-critical deterministic and highly regulated environment (aerospace automotive industrial medical or similar).
Deep expertise in at least one of: real-time perception and sensor fusion motion planning and control large-scale next gen AI model training and deployment or onboard inference systems.
Strong command of modern software engineering practices including AI model distillation MLOps CI/CD rigorous testing strategies and design-for-safety principles.
Experience in deploying end-to-end Data strategy to collect ingest and curate the data for AI model training simulation and edge deployment.
Experience managing the managers senior engineers and staff-level technical contributors including performance management and career development.
Ability to define and communicate architectural decisions across organizational boundaries including to non-technical stakeholders.
Proficiency in Pytorch TensorFlow and C (or equivalent systems languages used in real-time embedded environments).
Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to document complex technical decisions clearly and concisely.
Comfort operating in a fast-paced ambiguous startup environment where priorities and requirements evolve.

Nice to Have:

Background in vehicle dynamics vehicle control systems or avionics/Automotive software integration.
Familiarity with simulation-based validation hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing or digital twin development.
Experience with airborne hardware platforms embedded Linux or real-time operating systems (RTOS).
Published research or significant contributions to open-source projects in autonomy robotics or machine learning.
Prior experience at a Series AC deep tech startup.
Pilots license or meaningful hands-on experience with aircraft operations.

$252000 - $360000 a year

The compensation range provided is a good-faith estimate based on a wide range of factors inclusive of base salary only. The actual offer will be determined by a variety of factors including the candidates qualifications skills experience education and training. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Merlins total compensation package. Additionally Merlin offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees.

This position is based on-site at Merlin HQ in Boston MA.

Once youre here youll 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 unlimited vacation 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: emailprotected

Merlin Labs does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from candidates.

Required Experience:

Director

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