Perception Engineering Intern

At REGENT, we're on a mission to revolutionize regional transportation between coastal cities. We're not just building vehicles, we're creating a new category of transportation: the seaglider. These groundbreaking wing-in-ground-effect craft travel just above the water's surface, combining the speed of an airplane with the low operating costs of a boat. Capable of 180 miles at 180 mph on today's battery tech (and up to 400 miles with next-gen batteries), seagliders will unlock fast, affordable, and sustainable coastal transit for passengers and cargo - connecting cities, islands, and communities like never before.

Backed by leading investors and powered by a team of passionate, forward-thinking engineers, builders, and operators, we're now scaling from a breakthrough prototype to full production - and building the team to make it happen.

Role Overview

As a Perception Engineering Intern at REGENT, you will support the development of perception systems that enable our seagliders to understand and navigate their environment across hull-borne, foil-borne, and wing-borne operations. You'll work with real sensor data - from cameras to radar to sonar - and help build algorithms that fuse information from multiple sources to improve situational awareness, obstacle understanding, and safe vehicle behavior.

You'll gain hands-on experience in perception prototyping, sensor evaluation, and simulation-based testing, with opportunities to contribute to field data collection and real-world validation efforts. This is an exciting opportunity to learn how perception, autonomy, and maritime flight intersect, and to apply cutting-edge techniques in a rapidly evolving domain.

If you're energized by working at the intersection of cutting-edge innovation, real-world impact, and hands-on engineering, you'll be in the right place - and we'd be thrilled to have you on the team!

What You'll Do

• Support development and testing of perception algorithms for object detection, tracking, and environmental understanding

• Work with real-world sensor data (e.g., camera, radar, LiDAR, sonar) and simulation environments

• Assist with sensor calibration, dataset preparation, and labeling pipelines

• Contribute to multi-modal sensor fusion experiments and evaluation workflows

• Help analyze field test and sea-trial data to refine perception models

• Assist with integration and testing on hardware platforms and edge compute environments

What You'll Bring

• Currently pursuing a MS or PhD, in Computer Science, Robotics, Computer Engineering, AI/ML, or related field

• Coursework or project experience in perception, computer vision, robotics, signal processing, or state estimation

• Familiarity with Python and/or C++ development

• Comfort working with 3D data structures (e.g., point clouds, depth maps, meshes)

Bonus Experience

• Experience with OpenCV, PyTorch/TensorFlow, GStreamer, or similar perception frameworks

• Familiarity with multi-modal sensor setups (camera, radar, LiDAR, sonar)

• Background in probabilistic methods, filtering, or state estimation

• Experience working with datasets, labeling tools, or synthetic data generation

• Exposure to robotics middleware (ROS or similar pub/sub frameworks)

• Projects involving drones, autonomous vehicles, maritime robotics, or underwater systems

Who We're Looking For

• Collaborative Team Player: You believe that great things happen when teams work together. You communicate effectively and collaborate with engineers, stakeholders, and other cross-functional teams to align on goals and move projects forward. You bring people together, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and moving towards a shared vision.

• Creative Problem Solver: You thrive on tackling complex challenges and finding innovative solutions. Whether you're resolving installation challenges, debugging elusive electrical issues, or adapting on the fly during integration and test, you bring a practical, inventive mindset to every problem. You don't just patch issues - you improve processes, anticipate downstream impacts, and help turn one-off fixes into scalable solutions that raise the bar for future builds.

• Adaptable & Agile: In a fast-paced, ever-evolving startup environment, you quickly adapt to changing priorities and requirements. You approach challenges with a calm, resilient mindset, and know how to pivot and adjust your approach as needed, ensuring that progress continues without missing a beat.

• Innovative Mindset: You're driven by curiosity and a passion for technology. You're passionate about driving continuous improvement, embracing new technologies and methodologies to enhance efficiency, quality, and team performance.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation

• Housing Stipend available for those temporarily moving to join our team

• Daily, free catered lunches

• Learning & professional development opportunities

• Meaningful projects that make an impact

• Mentorship & guidance from experienced team members

If you're ready to take on an exciting challenge, grow with us, and make a lasting impact, we want to hear from you. Even if you don't meet every requirement, but you see yourself contributing to our mission, we encourage you to apply! We value diverse skillsets and experiences and believe in the potential of passionate individuals to make a big impact.

Equal Opportunity Employer

REGENT is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.