PX4 + Jetson Engineer — Autonomous Inspection Drone MVP (Remote, Milestone-Based)

I'm building a computer-vision-enabled autonomous drone MVP on a Holybro X650, Pixhawk 6X, PX4, and NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX platform and need an experienced drone software engineer to own the software stack end-to-end. I handle all hardware purchasing, assembly, and flight testing. You work fully remotely with SSH access to the Jetson and live sessions during tests. SCOPE, 7 milestones: BOM review — sanity-check my Holybro parts list, dedupe FC and GPS options, confirm Jetson bundle contents, and flag missing cables or power items. PX4 bring-up — X650 config, calibration procedures, failsafes, and waypoint missions. I execute physically; you guide and review logs. Jetson integration — JetPack, TensorRT, ROS 2 or MAVSDK, PX4-Jetson MAVLink bridge, and live video streaming to ground. Perception — YOLO-class detector with TensorRT, multi-object tracking, and GPS geotagging of detections, targeting 10 to 15 plus FPS on Orin NX. Mission autonomy — state machine covering takeoff, search, detect, inspect, log, and RTL, with offboard control, safety rules, and instant manual override. Operator dashboard — live video with detection overlays, map, detection log, and post-flight PDF or CSV report. Demo hardening — 3 clean end-to-end runs, runbook, and handoff docs. IMPORTANT: All autonomy and perception code must be developed SITL-first using PX4 SITL and Gazebo before running on the real vehicle. You can start before hardware arrives. REQUIRED: Shipped at least one real PX4 or ArduPilot vehicle with a companion computer, not just simulation. Jetson deployment experience, including TensorRT optimization and camera pipelines. MAVSDK or ROS 2 offboard control on real hardware. Strong Python; C++ where needed. Comfortable guiding remote hardware bring-up over video and SSH. NICE TO HAVE: GStreamer or WebRTC low-latency video. RTK GNSS setup, such as UM982 or F9P. ByteTrack or DeepSORT, detector fine-tuning. QGroundControl workflows. TO APPLY, answer these. Applications without answers will be skipped. Link or describe a PX4 or ArduPilot plus companion computer project you personally shipped. What flew, what did the companion computer do, and what broke along the way? Which detector and tracker combo would you run on an Orin NX 16GB for 3 to 5 object classes at 15 FPS, and how would you hit under 250 ms latency? MAVSDK-Python vs ROS 2 plus XRCE-DDS for this project — which would you pick and why? Your availability in hours per week and preference: milestone fixed-price or hourly. Milestone-based contract, private GitHub repo, NDA, and IP assignment required before repo access. 2x weekly syncs, async otherwise. Timezone flexible.