Navigation Engineer (Precise Navigation) at Harmattan AI (Paris, France)
Harmattan AI· Paris, France·
Role details
Harmattan AI at a glance
France's first defense-tech unicorn, building attritable AI-piloted strike, interception, and ISR drones for allied militaries.
Harmattan AI is a vertically integrated defense prime building autonomous drone systems for allied militaries. It designs the full stack, from airframes and payloads to embedded compute and the autonomy algorithms that let drones sense, decide, and act at the edge without GPS or a network link, coordinated across a swarm by its mission-orchestration layer.
$242M raised · latest: Series B · $200M · January 2026 · backed by Dassault Aviation, FirstMark Capital, Atlantic, Motier Ventures
Job description
About Us
Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces. Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.
About the Role
As a Navigation Engineer within our Precise Navigation team, you will design and develop high-precision navigation and positioning solutions based on tightly-coupled IMU/GNSS filtering, improving localisation accuracy, integrity, and robustness to jamming and spoofing for our autonomous systems – from concept to field deployment. You will work hand-in-hand with the Navigation and Radar teams, as well as software and Electronic Warfare (EW) teams, to deliver robust, resilient Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) and ensure overall performance, robustness and reliability.
Responsibilities
- Navigation Architecture: Drive the architecture and implementation of navigation / PNT solutions for autonomous platforms.
- Resilient PNT: Develop navigation resilient to GNSS degradation, jamming and spoofing (anti-jam / anti-spoof).
- Sensor Fusion: Design multi-sensor fusion (GNSS, INS/IMU, RF, vision) and the associated estimation and filtering algorithms.
- Testing & Validation: Design test plans (e.g. GNSS receiver testing in jamming environments), run simulations and replays, and report on findings and performance against targets.
- Technical Coordination: Collaborate across HW, software, EW and ML teams on technical interfaces and system-level trade-offs.
- System Reviews & Documentation: Contribute to design and architecture reviews and maintain requirements traceability and documentation.
Candidate Requirements
- MSc in Engineering (aerospace, robotics, EE or related); PhD is a plus.
- Strong mathematical background combined with good physical intuition.
- Experience with GNSS, INS/IMU and navigation/estimation filters (e.g. Kalman filtering), particularly in tightly-coupled architectures.
- Experience with navigation in GNSS-denied / contested environments.
- Familiarity with RF and EW constraints (GNSS jamming / spoofing) is a plus.
- Solid software / algorithm skills; combined algo + software profile rather than a pure coder.
- Broad engineering culture with understanding of electrical, embedded and mechanical systems.
- Rigorous, structured and mission-driven mindset with strong analytical skills.
- Excellent communication and documentation abilities.
We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.
Why work at Harmattan AI
- Culture: “Elite builders” who “thrive on complexity, move with urgency, and own their work end to end.” Emphasis on purpose, technical excellence, and real‑world impact. harmattan.ai
- Values: Tackle the hardest problems, build what matters, move at the speed of relevance, and aim to redefine frontiers. harmattan.ai
- Work policy: Hybrid model with a mix of remote and on‑site; many roles are in‑office at locations in Paris, Lausanne, London, Arlington (TX), Wissous, Poland, UAE, and Morocco. builtin.com
- Engineering culture: Hands‑on development of mission‑critical autonomous systems; strong R&D focus across AI, computer vision, RF hardware, propulsion, and mission planning.
- Perks: Not explicitly listed, but the company highlights the opportunity to protect front‑line personnel and shape the future of autonomous defence.