Lead Autonomy Software Engineer (Robotics)

Location: Arlington, VA, United States; ability to commute to Arlington as needed. Travel ranges from 10–25% to 25–50%, depending on candidate preference and role placement.

Salary: $150,000–$250,000 per year, plus equity in most full-time high-demand roles.

Company

hirify.global develops autonomous networks, weapons, sensors, and battlefield systems for national security customers.

What you will do

• Integrate and deploy the autonomy stack on customer-bound hardware platforms and validate performance in real-world conditions.
• Collaborate with users and stakeholders to deliver new vehicle behaviors, payload integrations, and mission use cases.
• Optimize autonomous vehicle performance across sensing, compute, controls, and other interacting subsystems.
• Analyze test results, identify root causes, and work with engineering teams to resolve issues.
• Detect performance gaps and implement enhancements to the core autonomy stack with cross-functional teams.
• Translate customer requirements into delivered autonomy capabilities in partnership with business development and engineering.

Requirements

• 3 or more years of relevant experience.
• B.S. in computer science, engineering, robotics, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated skills.
• Experience integrating software on hardware products.
• Strong programming skills in C++, Python, or Java, plus software design, unit testing, debugging, algorithms, and data structures.
• Ability to deliver production-quality software in a continuously integrated environment with clean code and documentation.
• Experience working in teams and proactively solving complex problems.

Nice to have

• Software development experience for robotics and autonomous systems.
• Experience with safety-critical standards such as MIL-STD-882, ISO-26262, or DO-178.
• Experience with ROS2, state machines, motion planning, path planning, navigation, mapping algorithms, or robot perception.
• Familiarity with real-time operating systems and embedded programming.
• Leadership experience on cross-functional software teams.

Culture & Benefits

• Premium healthcare with three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with 80% of premiums covered for employees and dependents.
• Company-paid life, AD&D, and short- and long-term disability insurance.
• 20 days of accrued PTO annually and a generous holiday calendar with a December winter break.
• At least 7 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
• $9,000 annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• 401(k) plan with traditional, Roth, and after-tax deferral options and company matching up to 4%.

Hiring process

• Recruiter provides further details about compensation and benefits during the hiring process.
• The position may require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.