GNC Engineer (PX4)

Location: Arlington, Virginia. Travel to customer sites for 1–2 weeks at a time is required to support integration, testing, and GNC tuning. US citizenship and eligibility to obtain a secret clearance are required.

Base salary: $140,000–$170,000 per year.

Company

hirify.global builds a software platform for AI-powered autonomous systems serving enterprise and government customers.

What you will do

• Develop and maintain GNC capabilities in PX4 and hirify.globalSDK, including new features, performance improvements, and automated testing.
• Own and evolve the US guidance controller for strike applications, focusing on robustness and mission effectiveness.
• Define, analyze, and review software requirements against customer needs, performance targets, and quality standards.
• Design and implement flight- and mission-critical onboard software for unmanned systems.
• Diagnose field issues through flight-log analysis, drive root-cause resolution, and support deployments with product, integration, and flight-operations teams.
• Travel to customer sites for platform integration, testing, and advanced GNC tuning.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of flight dynamics and aerodynamics fundamentals.
• Proficiency in C/C++ on Linux-based systems, memory-constrained embedded processors, and Python.
• Working knowledge of PX4 or comparable autopilot technology.
• Experience programming robotic applications with ROS or ROS2.
• Understanding of Kalman filtering and other state-estimation algorithms.
• US citizenship and eligibility to obtain a secret clearance.

Nice to have

• Hands-on drone experience, including piloting.

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible working hours.
• Stock options and unlimited PTO.
• Health insurance with dental and vision coverage.
• Medical flexible spending, life insurance, and a 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave.
• Collaborative environment focused on innovation, openness, and solving complex technical problems.