Localization Integration Engineer at Forterra – Clarksburg, Maryland

About Forterra

Forterra is a leading provider of autonomous systems for ground-based movement in the working world. Amongst some of the earliest innovators in the field of driverless technology, Forterra is focused on building systems that protect front-line soldiers and enable civilian workers in our industrial base. Forterra is the go-to provider of ground autonomy solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense, which harnesses the technology for asymmetric warfare in critical conditions.

About The Role

Forterra is seeking a Localization Integration Engineer to help deploy and scale our navigation and localization software across new vehicle platforms and hardware configurations.

This role is focused on integration, system-level debugging, platform bring-up, and interface development.

You will work closely with our state estimation and navigation algorithm engineers to ensure our GNSS/INS-based localization stack performs reliably across diverse vehicles, sensors, and compute platforms.

This is an ideal role for an engineer who enjoys hands-on system integration, debugging complex issues in real-world environments, and building robust interfaces between hardware and software systems.

What You'll Do

• Integrate Forterra’s localization software onto new vehicle platforms and compute environments.
• Bring up and validate new GNSS, IMU, encoder, and other navigation sensors.
• Develop and maintain hardware/software interfaces (e.g., encoder processor modules, new sensor drivers, communication interfaces).
• Debug system-level issues across the stack — from sensor inputs through state estimation outputs.
• Support vehicle testing, data collection, and performance validation.
• Collaborate with state estimation engineers to tune configurations and resolve integration-specific issues.
• Build tools and scripts to support calibration, validation, and performance analysis.
• Coordinate localization software versioning and platform-specific dependencies, working closely with DevOps to ensure reliable and reproducible releases.
• Occasionally travel to support on-site vehicle bring-up and testing.

Qualifications:

• B.S. or M.S. in Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, or related field.
• 2–8 years of relevant experience in robotics, autonomy, automotive, or embedded systems.
• Understanding of state estimation concepts (EKF, UKF) sufficient to support integration and debugging.
• Experience with vehicle testing and field debugging.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with ROS2 or similar middleware.
• Experience deploying localization or robotics software to new platforms.
• Experience developing hardware drivers or communication interfaces (CAN, Ethernet, serial, etc.).

US Salary Range
$130,000—$180,000

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption.
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer, providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in accordance with local, state, and federal laws. Forterrans are unique, talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain. All qualified applications will receive equal consideration for employment.