Founding Engineer - Real-Time AI & Defence Technology

We are hiring Founding Engineers — Noctra

If you do not read this entire posting, do not apply.

This role is remote in the first phase, and we are open to international candidates. Where you are based matters less than your relevance, technical depth, and ability to contribute to what we are building.

Noctra is a Norwegian defence technology company building real-time AI systems for situational understanding, autonomy, and decision support across defence, security, and other mission-critical environments.

We are not building consumer software.

We are not building ordinary SaaS.

We are building systems that must function in environments where latency, uncertainty, degraded conditions, and operational consequences matter.

We already have a working technical foundation, and we are now strengthening the early team around it.

We are currently approaching completion of our MVP and preparing for our next financing phase between late Q3 and Q4 2026. We are now looking for founding engineers to join us at this stage, not as support hires, but as core builders of the company and the technology.

These are founding-level engineering roles.

Profiles we are especially interested in right now:

* Real-time AI and sensor fusion engineers

* Computer vision, detection, and tracking engineers

* Edge AI and deployment engineers

* Autonomy and robotics systems engineers

* Engineers with strong experience from defence, ISR, aerospace, UAS, or closely related mission-critical environments

* Exceptionally strong profiles from critical infrastructure, maritime, oil and gas, or other high-consequence environments

This is not a place to plug into a finished stack.

This is not a place to sit far from architecture.

This is not a place for low-ownership contributors.

We are looking for people who want real responsibility and real technical ownership from an early stage.

About the role:

At Noctra, you will work directly with the founders and technical leadership on systems that sit at the intersection of AI, real-time software, autonomy, and operational decision support.

Depending on your background, your work may involve one or more of the following:

* Real-time AI systems and sensor fusion

* Computer vision, detection, tracking, and behaviour analysis

* Edge inference and deployment under hardware constraints

* Multi-sensor pipelines across video, RF, radar, and other inputs

* Autonomous systems and degraded-environment logic

* Decision systems, reasoning layers, and structured intelligence outputs

* Performance optimisation for latency-critical systems

* Architecture for systems that must operate reliably in contested or uncertain conditions

What you may work on:

You may work directly on:

* Building real-time pipelines for sensor ingestion, fusion, and analysis

* Developing and deploying computer vision models for detection, tracking, and interpretation

* Improving edge performance, inference efficiency, and end-to-end latency

* Working on world models, decision-support logic, and structured outputs

* Designing systems for uncertain inputs, degraded environments, and operational reliability

* Building software that must function across both edge and central systems

* Contributing to the technical direction of IRONLIGHT and ATLAS as core Noctra platforms

* Helping shape the engineering foundation of the company from first principles

Ownership expectations:

Ownership matters a great deal to us.

We are not looking for people who only want to execute tickets inside a narrow box.

We are looking for engineers who can take responsibility for difficult technical surfaces, make strong judgments, operate under ambiguity, and help shape the system itself.

What that means in practice:

* You take real ownership of the problems you touch

* You think in systems, not only in isolated components

* You care about reliability, consequences, and deployment reality

* You are comfortable helping define architecture, standards, and technical direction

* You do not wait for perfect clarity before contributing at a high level

* You value substance over hype and responsibility over status

Defence background requirement:

We are primarily looking for profiles with direct relevance to defence.

That includes candidates with backgrounds from:

* The armed forces

* The defence sector

* ISR and mission systems

* Aerospace

* UAS and autonomous systems

* Other closely related operational defence environments

If you do not come from a defence-related background, this role is still possible only if you are unusually strong and highly relevant from a closely related mission-critical field.

That means areas such as:

* Critical infrastructure

* Maritime and shipping

* Oil and gas

* High-consequence industrial systems

* Other environments where reliability, security, edge constraints, and operational consequences are real

If your background is mainly generic SaaS, standard enterprise software, or non-operational AI work, this role is unlikely to be the right fit.

Areas we are especially interested in right now:

Real-Time AI and Sensor Fusion

You may come from robotics, autonomy, aerospace, ISR, embedded systems, or similar environments.

Relevant experience may include:

* Multi-sensor pipelines

* Real-time data systems

* Edge compute

* Streaming systems

* GPU optimisation

* Robotics or autonomy frameworks

* Low-latency architecture

Computer Vision and Detection Systems

You may come from applied AI, autonomous vehicles, defence, drones, or machine perception.

Relevant experience may include:

* Object detection

* Multi-object tracking

* Scene understanding

* Behaviour analysis

* Model deployment

* Edge vision systems

* Performance tuning in production environments

Decision Systems and Reasoning Layers

You may come from applied AI systems, simulation, operational software, or intelligence platforms.

Relevant experience may include:

* Decision support systems

* Structured and unstructured data fusion

* RAG or agentic systems

* Knowledge graphs

* Probabilistic reasoning

* AI orchestration for operational workflows

What we are looking for

We are looking for engineers who understand both technology and context.

You do not need to come from one single traditional path, but you should have strong exposure to several of the following:

* Building real systems, not just experiments

* Working with latency, performance, and deployment constraints

* Applied AI or software systems in demanding environments

* Edge systems, embedded systems, robotics, autonomy, or high-performance infrastructure

* Production-minded engineering and strong system ownership

* Ability to reason clearly under ambiguity

* Strong technical judgment

* Comfort working close to product and architecture, not only tickets

* Serious interest in defence technology, situational awareness, autonomy, and mission-critical AI systems

Equally important:

* High ownership mindset

* Ability to operate in early-stage environments

* Willingness to build under uncertainty

* Preference for substance over hype

* Strong collaboration with technical and strategic leadership

* Seriousness, discipline, and long-term thinking

Work structure and flexibility

We have intentionally listed these roles in a flexible way because we want to structure the collaboration around the right person, not around a rigid template.

At this stage, we are open to:

* Full time

* Part time

* Fractional

* Task-based work with clear deadlines and ownership

What matters most to us is not a rigid number of hours per week or fixed office-style schedules. What matters is the strength of your background, the relevance of your experience, your fit with the company and team, and your ability to take real ownership and deliver meaningful work.

We care far more about contribution, reliability, and quality of execution than about whether the work happens in a traditional fixed-hour format.

Compensation

Compensation in the initial phase is equity based.

The amount will vary depending on:

* The scope of the role

* The level of responsibility

* The type of contribution

* How deeply involved you are

* How long you stay with us as the company develops

* The actual value of the contribution over time

If you require a traditional salaried role from day one, this role is likely not the right fit.

What this is:

* Founding-level engineering responsibility

* Early stage

* Technically demanding

* High trust and high ownership

* Direct influence on product, architecture, and technical direction

* A real opportunity to help define the engineering foundation of the company from first principles

What this is not:

* A finished stack

* A narrow support role

* A low-ownership position

* A generic AI startup job

* A mature environment with all constraints already defined

* A place to stay far from hard technical decisions

Important

If you do not match every point exactly, but believe you are highly relevant to what we are building, we still want to hear from you.

We are not only looking for one profile.

We are looking for exceptional people across a small number of critical technical areas.

Application

Please send your CV to:

CEO@Noctra.no

We are not looking for a large number of people.

We are looking for the right people.