Jobs at Merlin Labs

Develop and deploy human-machine and machine-machine teaming capabilities for autonomous airborne systems. Responsibilities include applied research, human-subject experiments, simulation, software integration, flight testing, and high-quality software development. The role collaborates across engineering teams to improve autonomy performance, safety, resilience, and human interaction in real-world aviation environments.

Lead strategic finance functions including revenue forecasting, quote-to-cash and procure-to-pay process design, controls and workflows, operating expense forecasting and accruals, financial systems implementation support, monthly/quarterly cadence and variance analysis, and ultimately P&L ownership for an assigned product line.

Designs, integrates, analyzes, and tests avionics and aircraft control components. Responsibilities include mechanical system integration, stress and model analyses, CAD and GD&T, fabrication drawings, test planning, data analysis, certification support, and technical documentation. The role requires hands-on lab and field work, rapid concept-to-test development, and up to 25–50% domestic and international travel for aircraft integration and testing.

Lead airworthiness and certification activities for autonomous aviation systems across military and civil programs. Own certification strategies, compliance documentation, issue papers, review items, regulatory audits, conformity inspections, and test witnessing. Interface directly with authorities including the FAA, EASA, USAF, Army Aviation, and NAVAIR. Manage certification schedules, risks, TIAs, and designee programs while mentoring engineers and standardizing certification processes. The role requires hands-on experience with military airworthiness and civil certification from certification basis development through closure.

Designs, integrates, analyzes, and tests avionics and control components for autonomous aircraft and test labs. Responsibilities include mechanical system integration, stress and model analysis, CAD and GD&T, fabrication drawings, test planning, data analysis, certification support, and technical documentation. The role requires hands-on engineering across rapid design cycles, mechanisms, environmental and structural analysis, and aircraft testing. It is onsite in Boston and requires 25–50% domestic and international travel.

Lead the engineering process assurance organization supporting certification of autonomous aviation systems. Manage configuration management, development assurance, process assurance, and software quality teams; standardize and audit engineering processes; represent compliance to FAA, DCMA, customers, and certification authorities; oversee corrective actions and continuous improvement; and build scalable process frameworks across civil and military programs.

Build and operate reliable data pipelines transforming flight test, simulation, and operational data into versioned, traceable ML training datasets. Responsibilities include ingestion, normalization, time alignment, validation, dataset lineage, anomaly mining, labeling workflows, deployment feedback loops, monitoring, and data coverage analysis. Collaborate with flight test and operations teams on instrumentation and data access. The role is on-site in Boston and requires production data engineering experience supporting machine learning pipelines.

Provides legal oversight for government contract proposals, procurement, negotiations, contract structuring, and FAR/DFARS compliance. Drafts and negotiates commercial agreements including teaming agreements, technology licenses, NDAs, vendor contracts, and supply-chain agreements. Builds contracting templates, playbooks, and processes while supporting broader legal matters such as international government contracting, partnerships, aviation regulation, lobbying compliance, employment issues, and litigation. Serves as the primary legal contact for business requests in a fast-paced, regulated aerospace and defense environment.

Develops and integrates reusable aircraft models for simulation across multiple aircraft platforms. Responsibilities include modeling aerodynamics and aircraft systems, supporting flight-test planning and instrumentation, analyzing test data, writing simulation software, collaborating with virtual test environment users, and expanding simulation capabilities for autonomy development, integration, and validation.

Lead the data strategy and own end-to-end data pipelines for AI training, simulation, and deployment in safety-critical autonomous systems. Build data flywheels, integrate with large-scale GPU/TPU training infrastructure, ensure simulator fidelity, partner with safety and certification teams, mentor engineers, and track KPIs for pipeline health and model readiness.

Lead accounting, financial reporting, and compliance for a public government contractor. Oversee SEC reporting, SOX, FAR/DFARS/CAS compliance, government audits, monthly close, revenue recognition, equity accounting, payroll, and a team of accountants while partnering cross-functionally and supporting audits, M&A, and strategic initiatives.

The Staff Simulation Platform Engineer will design and build simulation infrastructure, enhance scenario-based validation for autonomy systems, and modernize toolchains, while providing technical leadership to the team.

Lead technical strategy and execution for Merlin's AI Core platform across perception, sensor fusion, planning, and control. Build and manage a multidisciplinary engineering organization, own architecture from data pipelines to real-time onboard inference, enforce aviation-grade safety and quality, partner with certification and systems teams, recruit senior talent, and translate research into product opportunities.

Lead the technical direction for mission autonomy, developing decision-making capabilities for airborne systems, while overseeing teams and driving R&D projects.

Lead the development of autonomy and robotics software for aviation. Design, integrate, and optimize systems for uncrewed vehicles, focusing on reducing pilot workload and enhancing decision-making.

Design and implement flight control systems for fixed-wing aircraft using MATLAB/Simulink and Python. Decompose system requirements into control-level requirements, develop simulation and model-based tools, perform flight testing for system identification and verification, and deliver end-to-end flight control products to customers while collaborating on certifiable autonomous systems.

Lead a small systems engineering team to develop system/sub-system architecture, requirements, and V&V for flight autonomy. Own development plans, manage cross-functional tasking, run reviews with customers/suppliers/regulators, and coordinate safety, hardware, and software integration.

Lead systems engineering for flight autonomy: define subsystem features, requirements, architectures, and test strategies. Manage cross-functional execution, perform V&V, review artifacts with customers and regulators, and collaborate with safety, hardware, and software teams to integrate requirements and interfaces for safety-critical autonomous flight systems.

Lead development of test plans, procedures, and cases for integration and verification of the Mission Autonomy sub-system. Ensure traceability between requirements and tests, assess test facility capability, produce test and problem reports, support flight autonomy integration on the air vehicle, and collaborate cross-functionally to develop requirements, architectures, and verification artifacts.