Field Operations Engineer

Job description

FIELD OPERATIONS ENGINEER Sydney (Eveleigh) · Early career · Regular field travel, occasional international TL;DR - Be the person who turns a software release into autonomous robots flying real missions - integrate the hardware, provision the platforms, then take them into the field - Own new hardware bring-up end-to-end: new airframes, radios, datalinks, and companion computers - flashing, configuring, tuning, and debugging until they work - Run field testing campaigns end-to-end: planning, provisioning, flying, data capture, and the post-test debrief - Hardware-first, but you live at the seam where software meets the airframe — ArduPilot parameters, Linux, flashing edge compute, and enough scripting to make your own life easier - Clear path into a forward-deployed engineering role, supporting integrations and customers across Australia and the US - Roughly one week a month in the field, with international travel for demos and deployments - Australian citizenship required. A Remote Pilot Licence is a bonus - if you don't have one, we'll help you get it ABOUT BREAKER The way humans use robots is broken. Modern problems demand more robots than we have operators. Every drone, ground vehicle, and maritime system requires dedicated training, manual control, and constant oversight. One operator per robot. One pilot per mission. Breaker's AI agent breaks this constraint. Our technology turns any robot into a truly autonomous, self-organizing teammate. Operators command and query teams of robots through natural language conversations over the push-to-talk radios they already carry - no laptops, no controllers, no additional gear. Instead of manually flying search patterns across three different screens, you say, "survey this area and flag anything unusual." The robot team figures out how to divide the task, coordinate their movements, and report back what matters. We're fundamentally changing the operator-to-robot ratio. Small teams become force multipliers. Our software deploys directly onboard each robot, enabling real-time, intent-driven control even in contested environments with limited bandwidth. We're solving problems most AI companies never touch: sub-second inference on edge hardware with strict latency, power, and connectivity constraints. We're backed by some of the best investors globally and growing our team across Austin, Texas, and Sydney, Australia. We're a small team of experienced engineers moving fast on technology that will define how humans and machines work together for decades to come. Join us if you want to help build the robots we were promised 🤖 ABOUT THE ROLE Breaker's software is only as good as the robots it runs on — and getting those robots integrated, configured, and flying reliably is its own hard problem. This role owns that problem. We've gone from one platform to five in a short space of time, with a growing collection of radios, datalinks, and edge compute to go with them. Every one of those needs someone to bring it online: pull the new release onto the airframe, reflash the companion computer, get the radio link stable, tune the platform until it flies the way it should, and then prove it in the field. That is the core of this job. You'll be hands-on with the hardware, and you'll be in the terminal — reading logs, setting parameters, flashing images, and diagnosing whether the problem is the airframe, the link, or the software. You don't need to be a software engineer, and you won't be writing production code or working in our autonomy stack. But you do need to be genuinely comfortable around software, because integration work is where most of your time will go. On top of that, you'll own how we test: running simulation before we commit to a field day, planning and executing test campaigns, capturing clean data, triaging what comes back, and packaging bug reports the software team can actually act on. You'll keep the workshop and hardware registry in a state where any deployment can leave on short notice. The natural progression from here is forward-deployed engineering: travelling to support integrations, demos, and customers directly, in Australia and internationally. If that's the career you want, this is the fastest route to it we can offer. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Hardware and software integration - Bring new platforms, radios, datalinks, payloads, and companion computers online — flash software releases, configure and tune, and debug until the whole chain works - Diagnose issues across the hardware/software boundary: RF and link problems, sensor and comms configuration, flight parameter tuning, edge compute setup - Work directly with the software team on integration blockers, and support new platform integrations alongside our mechatronics engineers Field testing - Plan and run field testing campaigns end-to-end: prepare the gear, execute the test plan, capture clean data, and run the post-test debrief - Run simulation (software-in-the-loop) testing on a regular cadence - new releases and new CONOPs - to surface issues before they reach the field - Offload and analyse field data, triage issues, and turn them into clear, reproducible bug reports Operational ownership - Own the hardware registry and inventory, keeping the Sydney workshop organised and deployment-ready (and supporting the Austin team as needed) - Support demos and deployments in Australia and internationally with on-site hardware, comms, and configuration support - Build and maintain SOPs, operator manuals, test tooling, and field documentation ABOUT YOU You're early in your career, or a few years into it - this is not a senior role, and we care more about attitude, drive, and hands-on ability than years on a CV. Outstanding recent graduates are encouraged to apply, especially those who've cut their teeth on serious, competitive engineering projects. We're looking for someone who has actually built things and can talk about hard problems they've solved themselves. The best people in this role are the ones who won't leave a flaky radio link or an unexplained log entry alone until they understand it. REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE - Hands-on experience with drones or other UAVs - you understand how they work (flight controllers, ESCs, props, radios) and have built, tuned, or seriously tinkered with at least one platform - Working knowledge of ArduPilot, PX4, or a similar flight stack: setting and tuning parameters, reading logs, and diagnosing problems - Strong Linux and command-line skills, and comfortable flashing and configuring embedded or edge compute (e.g. NVIDIA Jetson) and debugging what happens when it doesn't work - Some scripting ability (Python or similar) - enough to read and modify code, automate the repetitive parts of your job, and build small tools; use of AI coding tools is a plus - CAD and 3D printing for hardware fixes and fixtures - Highly organised, with strong attention to detail - you track the things other people let slip - Self-motivated and happy to follow (and improve) defined procedures, and you genuinely enjoy hardware and field work - Willing to travel and participate in regular field testing (around one week a month), including international trips - Australian citizenship HIGHLY VALUED EXPERIENCE - Standout university project experience in a competitive, company-like team (solar car, autonomous systems, robotics competition teams and similar) - A mechatronics background, or any background where you've owned a system across hardware, firmware, and software - A Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) and/or ReOC experience — if you don't have a RePL, we'll help you get one - Experience with RF, mesh radios, telemetry links, or military communications - A defence or military background — especially hands-on work with experimental hardware, UAS, or drones - Field, deployment, or expedition experience in demanding environments - Experience improving or extending simulation environments, and prior startup or scale-up experience WHY JOIN US? You'll be an owner, not a renter. We're at the stage where foundational decisions are still being made and entire systems need to be built from scratch. Your work won't be maintaining someone else's legacy - you'll be creating what comes next. The problems you solve and the systems you build will define how Breaker scales. You'll work with people who've done this before. Our team has shipped production robotics systems, scaled infrastructure, and solved the kind of hard integration problems that only come up when software meets the physical world. You won't be the only person in the room who's debugged a flaky radio link, provisioned a fleet of drones, or rescued a field test when the hardware fought back. You'll solve problems that don't exist anywhere else. Most companies are building incremental improvements on established technology. We're defining new categories - which means the work is harder, more ambiguous, and infinitely more interesting. You'll work hard, together. We're in the office every day, grinding on hard problems alongside great people. We've built a workspace where the best work happens — access to hardware, quick decisions, real collaboration. We're flexible when life requires it, but we're looking for people who want to show up, get stuck in, and build something significant with a team they respect. We're going global. Backed by globally recognised investors, we're growing teams across Sydney, Australia and Austin, Texas. This role sits on the path toward forward-deployed work across regions - if you want that exposure, it exists here. You'll own what you build. Generous equity packages mean when Breaker wins, you win. Location. Cicada Innovations, Eveleigh, Sydney, Australia (National Innovation Centre). Regular domestic travel for field testing, with occasional international travel for demos and deployments. If you're excited about the opportunity to work at the bleeding edge of physical AI, we'd love to hear from you.