Senior Software Developer Marine Robotic Systems

The University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Robotics (ACFR) is one of Australia’s leading robotics research groups and undertakes fundamental and applied research in the area of field robotics. Our marine systems group is focused on the development of autonomous marine vehicle systems for marine survey and has recently been awarded an Australian Economic Accelerator (AEA) Innovate grant to explore the commercialisation of our Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology. One of the key objectives of this project is to demonstrate the vehicle capabilities and validate operations in support of marine survey-as-a-service operations across several industry sectors.

Key project outcomes will include demonstration missions at sites around Australia and engaging with a range of key stakeholders as part of our market validation program. In collaboration with a strong existing scientific and industrial userbase, we will validate the developed tools and demonstrate how important scientific insights directly relevant to ecosystem management and commercial development in offshore industries can be derived from underwater imagery and associated data collected by AUV systems. Applications include environmental monitoring and impact assessment, climate change science, marine park management, marine archaeology, deep-sea geology, asset inspection and defence applications. Successful candidates will be expected to spend some time in the field supporting operations and validating the outcomes of their work in real-world trials to demonstrate capability.

To support this work, we are seeking a Senior Software Developer with experience in marine robotic systems. The successful candidate will play a crucial role in developing and refining the core functionalities that enable autonomous operations, including navigation, data processing, communication, and mission planning. Their primary responsibility will be developing communication systems and user-friendly command and control interfaces, allowing operators to easily configure missions and monitor AUV performance remotely as well as data visualisation tools and cloud-based platforms for real-time mission analysis. They will also work on software that allows the vehicles to navigate and adapt to dynamic underwater environments without human intervention, including algorithms for real-time sensor fusion, autonomous decision-making, and path optimisation to ensure the AUV can efficiently execute complex tasks such as underwater mapping or surveillance.