Founding Engineer

Can You Solve This?

The Challenge:

An FPV drone flies at 100 km/h. You have to detect, track, and intercept it physically. No Cloud. Just on-board compute using:
• YOLOv8 Nano on Qualcomm QRB5165 Flight controller + NPU SoC. Don't know Qualcomm yet? No problem! If you have pushed Nvidia Jetson or Hailo-8 to their absolute limits, you have the mindset we need.
• Autonomous guidance using Proportional Navigation, MPC, or PID/LQR control loops

If that sounds impossible, you're right. It's one of the hardest problems in counter-drone defense. FPV kamikaze drones dominate modern warfare. Existing defense solutions are incapable of countering this emerging threat.

We're Herakles – Munich-based defense startup building autonomous interceptor drones.

What we offer:

• Equity
• Founding Engineer role
• Full tech autonomy

Your skills:

Drones, Embedded Systems, Computer Vision, or Robotics

Mission:

Stop FPV kamikaze drones from killing soldiers. Building the "Iron Dome" for infantry

Interested in hard problems? Find the full mission and apply here:
→https://www.herakles-defense.com/founding-engineer