Team Lead - Perception (m/f/d)

As Perception Team Lead, you'll own SE3's perception stack end to end: the technical roadmap, the architecture and the core algorithmic decisions behind object detection, tracking, semantic segmentation and depth estimation. You'll hire and grow the team, set the engineering bar and stay hands-on, working closely with our founders and autonomy engineers as systems move from recorded data to field trials. What you build decides how well our platforms understand the world around them in real operations.

What You’ll Work On

• Perception Roadmap: Own the technical roadmap for perception, deciding what we build, in which order and how we measure progress.
• Architecture & Algorithms: Define the architecture of the perception stack and make the core algorithmic decisions across detection, tracking, segmentation and depth.
• Detection & Tracking: Ship object detection and multi-object tracking that stay reliable on real mission data from our autonomous platforms.
• Segmentation & Depth: Deliver semantic segmentation and depth estimation that give downstream autonomy a dependable picture of the scene.
• Evaluation & Replay: Build the evaluation and replay loop so the team iterates mostly on recorded data, with clear metrics, benchmark datasets and regression tests.
• Real-World Deployment: Take models from training to onboard compute and field trials, and improve them until they work under real operating conditions.
• Team Building: Hire the perception team, set the bar for engineering quality and mentor engineers while staying hands-on in the code.

You take ownership of hard technical problems and lead from the front, staying hands-on while setting direction for others.

• You hold a Ph.D. with 3+ years of industry experience, or an M.Sc. with 6+ years, in Computer Vision, Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a related field.
• You have a proven record of building perception systems that shipped and worked in the real world, in robotics, autonomous driving, AR/VR, drones or adjacent domains.
• You bring deep expertise across modern perception, including object detection, tracking, segmentation and depth estimation, and you base architecture decisions on evaluation data.
• You have led engineering teams, including hiring, setting technical direction and growing people.
• You speak fluent English; German is a plus. Given the nature of SE3's work in the defence sector, candidates must be eligible to work on defence-related projects and, where required, obtain the relevant security clearance.

Especially Valued Bonus Skills

• Publications at CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS or similar venues.
• Experience building a team or technical function at an early-stage company.
• Supervising students or researchers and turning research into product.
• Deploying models on real-time, resource-constrained compute such as Jetson-class platforms.
• Field experience with UAVs or other robots that get tested outside the lab.

Perks & Benefits

• Real Ownership: Participate in SE3’s growth through our employee participation programme
• Work Environment to Excel at: Find a high-quality and modern toolset, flat hierarchy and a skilled, driven team which will push the limits together with you
• AI-boosted workplace: We empower every employee with best-in-class AI tools and agents, giving you unlimited access to the latest advancements and a true productivity edge
• 31 Paid Days Off: 30 vacation days plus your birthday off
• Well-being Access: Free membership to gyms, yoga, and wellness through EGYM Wellpass
• Team Offsites: We go on 2 company retreats per year, our last ones were in Italy and Greece
• Mentorship: Work closely with experienced engineers and get paired with a professional mentor to support your growth

About the Role

Our Process

• Intro Call (30 min): Let’s get to know each other
• Coding / Algorithm Interview: (90 min): We work through a practical perception, estimation, or robotics software problem together
• Technical Interview (1 hr): We dive into perception systems you have built and shipped, the hardest technical decisions you have made and how you raise the bar for a team.
• Team Dinner / Lunch: Meet the team and see whether it is a strong fit on both sides.