HAVELOCK, NC, November 4, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Josh J. Spisak has been recognized for achievement in systems engineering.

Mr. Spisak's career reflects a deep commitment to systems engineering, with a particular focus on integrating components and subsystems to create reliable, scalable solutions. Since 2026, he has served as a senior autonomy engineer at Virtus Maritime, Inc., where he leads the development of a new unmanned surface vessel system. His responsibilities encompass both high-level design and hands-on engineering, and he maintains a direct approach to troubleshooting and problem-solving. As the Virtus team expands, he also devotes significant effort to onboarding and infrastructure. He is recognized for his expertise in systems thinking and integration, reliability assessment, bill of materials revision and the identification of hidden design details. Mr. Spisak is a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

Prior to joining Virtus Maritime, Inc., Mr. Spisak held the position of senior autonomy engineer at Detroit Defense. In this capacity, he contributed to the company's autonomy system, emphasizing the deployment of practical solutions that could be fielded rapidly and effectively. His work at Detroit Defense was driven by a desire to move beyond research and deliver tangible results that would directly benefit end users.

Throughout his career, Mr. Spisak has brought robots from the lab, to the field, deploying across military installations, construction sites, factories and wilderness. His key interest is in developing deployable systems that meet rigorous operational requirements.

From 2023 to 2026, Mr. Spisak served as a senior systems engineer at Field AI in Mission Viejo, California. There, he played a pivotal role in advancing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (DARPA RACER) program, as well as leading development teams for its commercial endeavors. He joined the engineering team during its inception and helped grow the organization into the titan of embodied AI it became. His team developed multiple systems for DARPA projects, Construction progress tracking, and extensive infrastructure projects. Mr. Spisak's leadership extended to mentoring junior engineers, and he considers witnessing his engineers' professional growth one of his most rewarding achievements.

Between 2020 and 2023, Mr. Spisak was a research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he contributed to academic research projects centered on system integration and reliability within robotics applications. From 2020 to 2022, he concurrently served as team lead, chief engineer and advisor for MIT-PITT-RW in Pittsburgh. Under his guidance, the student-led racing team competed in full-scale autonomous racing events using a modified Dallara AV-21 racecar at venues such as Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The team was notable for being composed entirely of undergraduate students competing against predominantly doctoral-level teams, and it raised funds during the COVID-19 pandemic to fund their participation.

His initial exposure to academic research began as a research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University from 2018 to 2019. Before embarking on his technical career path, Mr. Spisak worked as an Apple master and sales associate at Best Buy in the Greater Pittsburgh region from 2017 to 2018. Prior to this, he worked at McDonalds which he considers a formative experience that led to his passion for growing engineering teams.

Mr. Spisak's educational background has been instrumental in shaping his professional trajectory. He earned a Master of Science in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2023 after completing a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the School of Computing and Information at the University of Pittsburgh in 2020. His foundational studies include an associate degree in math and science and an Associate of Science in software development from Community College of Allegheny County in 2017. Among his accolades is the Outstanding Male Student Award from Community College of Allegheny County, received in 2018—an honor he holds in high regard for recognizing his early dedication and achievement.

He credits much of his success to his conviction that every problem has a solution waiting to be found—a mindset especially vital in robotics, whose inherently physical nature demands hands-on effort for the assembly, modification and validation of systems. This philosophy took root when he immersed himself in CMU's Robotics Institute, encouraged by friends and mentors, including Red Whittaker. The collaborative environment inspired him to pursue engineering with greater ambition and set him on a path toward building impactful technologies.

Throughout his academic journey, Mr. Spisak remained actively involved in civic-minded organizations through volunteer work associated with church activities and student organizations at both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

Outside his professional pursuits, Mr. Spisak enjoys music production with a particular interest in electronic dance music (EDM). Scuba diving is another passion; he discovered it while visiting Guam during his father's deployment with the Air National Guard and later achieved Master Diver status while living in California. Although just one dive short of completing his Divemaster certification before relocating, he intends to return to diving when possible.

Mr. Spisak values close relationships with family members who reside in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—a location that is now more accessible since his move to North Carolina—and maintains a long-distance relationship with his partner Hunter.

Looking ahead at Virtus Maritime, Inc., Mr. Spisak aims to help expand the company significantly by drawing on previous experience growing teams at Field AI. He shares CEO Dan's commitment to community engagement and economic development within North Carolina and looks forward to contributing over the long term while pursuing opportunities for personal advancement into chief or lead engineering roles as production scales up dramatically.

Mr. Spisak's career is distinguished by an unwavering focus on building practical systems that deliver real-world impact while investing deeply in people—the true foundation behind every successful engineering endeavor.

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