---
title: 'Software Engineer, Perception at Rain'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-perception-rain-alameda-580aese7sgze'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Software Engineer, Perception at Rain

- **Company:** Rain
- **Location:** Alameda, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-09-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/rain-aero/am9icG9zdDqzv9VdQ2rfE5HtdxUi5AYE

## Job description

## About the role

You are responsible for giving autonomous aircraft the ability to perceive wildfires - transforming raw sensor data into an accurate, evolving picture of the fire and its environment. By fusing vast quantities of real-time visual, thermal, and geospatial data into reliable intelligence, your systems ensure that first responders and their autonomous suppression aircraft act on truth, not guesswork. When your models decompose the fire front, track fire growth, and identify new spot fires, Rain-equipped aircraft gain the clarity needed to develop effective suppression strategies.

## What we do

Rain integrates with early wildfire detection to dispatch autonomous aircraft to suspected ignitions. Once dispatched, Rain’s Wildfire Mission Autonomy System perceives the fire, shares intelligence, develops a suppression strategy, and when approved, completes the water drop and evaluates its efficacy. Combining wildfire mission management, path planning, fire perception, suppression strategy, and suppressant targeting, Rain’s technology gives fire agencies the ability to stop wildfires in their earliest stages, before they grow out of control.

## What you will do

- Apply machine learning and classical techniques to perform real-time mapping of wildfire environments for suppression and fire management onboard aircraft
- Drive the design, development, testing, and deployment of the perception system, collaborating with engineering and field operations
- Produce performant software for ingesting sensor data, classifying, segmenting, tracking, localizing, and modeling the wildfire environment on resource limited targets
- Design experiments, data collection efforts, and curate training/evaluation sets
- Architect, design, and implement core product applications as well as tools and infrastructure
- Write performant, well-abstracted software, and improve code quality through design and code reviews

## What you have done

- 6+ years of experience in computer vision and machine learning, including segmentation, localization, and world modeling
- Strong proficiency in C++14 (or newer) development for resource limited environments
- Experience designing and developing algorithms for a variety of sensors such as visual and thermal cameras, RADAR, LiDAR, etc.
- Strong mathematical skills and understanding of probabilistic techniques for uncertainty modeling
- You thrive in a fast paced, collaborative, small team environment with minimal supervision
- Excellent analytical and communication skills, demonstrated collaboration with interdisciplinary teams

What will make you a great fit

- Experience with real-time perception systems for safety critical applications
- Experience with depth estimation, tracking, geospatial modeling
- Experience building and maintaining infrastructure for ML model development
- Experience with GPU processing
- Familiarity with sensor calibration, camera geometry, kalman filters
- Familiarity with Linux development and target environments
- M.S or a Ph.D. in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience
- You are willing to travel at least 15% of the year for validation testing

Location

This is an on-site position. Our office is located in Alameda, California—just across the Bay from San Francisco. The office is easily accessible by ferry, bike and scooter, and there is ample parking.

Legal Notice

This role involves access to information governed by U.S. export control laws. To comply, applicants must qualify as a “U.S. Person” (U.S. Citizen, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee). Employment offers are contingent upon meeting these requirements.

## About Rain

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Rain builds autonomous wildfire intelligence and suppression systems for uncrewed aircraft to detect, perceive, and extinguish fires in their earliest stages.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Early-stage startup)
- **Headquarters**: Alameda, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: Bryan, Ephraim, Max (last names not publicly disclosed)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Autonomous systems, aerospace, wildfire management, climate tech
- Target customers: B2G (government fire agencies), B2B (private firefighting operators), enterprise (aviation partners)
- Mission: Provide autonomous technology for rapid wildfire response, protecting communities and firefighters by enabling aircraft to work safely in dangerous conditions, including at night and degraded visual environments.

## Products & Services
- **Wildfire Mission Autonomy System**: An end-to-end autonomous intelligence platform that perceives a wildfire, understands its behavior (size, spread direction), develops an optimal suppression strategy, and commands uncrewed aircraft to execute water drops. Key capabilities include hotspot detection, perimeter control, and post-drop efficacy evaluation.
- **Wildfire Perception System**: A sensor fusion and data processing system that transforms real-time visual, thermal, and geospatial data into actionable fire intelligence, enabling autonomous aircraft to see through smoke and darkness.
- **Autonomous Suppression Aircraft Integration**: Retrofitting existing helicopter platforms (e.g., Black Hawk) with Rain’s autonomy stack, allowing them to operate without onboard pilots for suppression missions.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed (Series stage unknown)
- **Funding**: Not publicly disclosed; operates as a small, funded startup backed by grants or private investors (exact details not available)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: 
  - Sikorsky (a Lockheed Martin company) – demonstrated autonomous wildfire suppression technology together in California
  - Brothers Air Support – private Black Hawk firefighting operator; first integration of Rain’s perception system with a private firefighting aircraft
  - Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) – participated in live-flight demonstrations
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Successfully demonstrated world’s first fully autonomous wildfire detection and suppression (2019 MK1 prototype over ~40 acres)
  - Completed multi-aircraft coordinated operations with human-piloted helicopters in same Fire Traffic Area
  - Actively hiring across multiple engineering roles (autonomy, IT/DevSecOps, software engineering)
  - Focus on expanding prepositioned autonomous aircraft network in high-risk areas

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in autonomous wildfire suppression**: Only company combining real-time fire perception, mission planning, and autonomous aircraft control in a single integrated system
- **Military-grade partnerships**: Relationship with Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin provides credibility, access to aircraft platforms, and deep aerospace expertise
- **Proven real-world demonstrations**: Multiple successful flight tests showing autonomous takeoff, fire identification, and water drops in representative wildfire environments
- **Firefighter-centered design**: Built by a team with direct firefighting experience; technology specifically addresses the needs and constraints of wildland fire operations
- **Regulatory and safety focus**: Emphasis on DO-178C compliance, safety-critical software, and real-time performance under degraded environmental conditions

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale autonomous aircraft networks**: Preposition numerous uncrewed aircraft throughout high-risk wildland-urban interfaces for rapid response (within critical first minutes of ignition)
- **Expand partnerships**: Work with more fire agencies and private firefighting operators to integrate Rain’s technology into existing fleets
- **Enable nighttime operations**: A key differentiator, as most aerial firefighting stops at dusk; Rain’s autonomy works in degraded visual environments
- **Build cross-platform compatibility**: Ensure system works across different helicopter models (Black Hawk, other platforms)
- **Continue validation testing**: Regular flight testing and simulation to refine autonomy in challenging real-world conditions

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Directly tackling the urgent problem of catastrophic wildfires, protecting lives and communities
- **Small, nimble team**: Real ownership and immediate impact; employees work across the full stack and see results in the field
- **Unique environment**: Office located in Alameda, CA (across bay from San Francisco), with a firehouse shop for personal projects, go-kart track in the back lot, and panoramic views of the Bay
- **On-site role**: All engineering roles are on-site at Alameda; some travel for testing (approx 15% per year)
- **Benefits**: 401(k), free lunch, great health insurance, ping pong table, unlimited/minimum time off policy
- **Culture values**: Diversity & inclusion (explicitly stated), collaboration across small team, high autonomy and ownership, safety-critical engineering rigor
- **Growth opportunity**: Early-stage company with significant technical challenges; hands-on work with cutting-edge autonomy, perception, and aerospace systems
- **Satisfying work**: Engineers see their code deployed in real flight tests and actual firefighting missions

## Sources
1. [rain.aero – Careers page](https://www.rain.aero/careers)
2. [rain.aero – Main website](https://www.rain.aero/)
3. [rain.aero – About Us](https://www.rain.aero/about-us)
4. [rain.aero – Software Engineer, Autonomy job posting](https://www.rain.aero/software-engineer-autonomy)

## Other roles at Rain

- [IT / DevSecOps Engineer Contractor](https://feeny.ai/job/it-devsecops-engineer-contractor-rain-alameda-yn505d9jny8b) — Alameda, CA
- [Software Engineer, Mission Simulation](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-mission-simulation-rain-alameda-qrprgbpxnkdx) — Alameda, CA
- [Software Engineer, Autonomy](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-autonomy-rain-alameda-9zkhdv52s7ej) — Alameda, CA
- [Software Engineer, Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-perception-anduril-industries-costa-mesa-california-cgwtm47443yw) — Costa Mesa California, United States
- [Software Engineer, Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-perception-voxel-san-francisco-fmtpwpwcf717) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer, Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-perception-intrinsic-singapore-qb38sjy219e3) — Singapore