Pros
* I've learned so much about autonomous robotics and high quality software development at Skydio. Finding somewhere where I could learn from my coworkers was my main goal of my last job search, and I'm very happy I chose to work here. * We are a relatively small team of software engineers focused on autonomy, and because of that, I've been able to learn and contribute in many different areas (from planning & controls, to human-robot interaction, to some state estimation and mapping). * The development process is fantastic. I can think of an idea, write the code, put it in simulation, and put it on a drone and fly it all in the same day. I think that's extremely rare in the robotics space. * I genuinely think that management cares about employee satisfaction. They communicate the road map well and are always open to suggestions. * The culture tends to be slightly academic, focusing on keeping up with new research topics and having deep discussions into how different ideas could be adapted to work at Skydio. * Our team is very collaborative. We are working on a challenging task of creating a robust autonomous system that is beyond what we've seen in the wild. We are all focused on that objective and achieving it together, and I really enjoy working on this team.
Cons
It would be nice if our group was more diverse in terms of background, experience, gender, and/or race. As a woman at Skydio, I haven't run into any roadblocks, and none of the engineers I work with have treated me in a disrespectful way -- but it would still be beneficial for our team dynamic and for our product to have more diversity.