Senior Software Engineer - Autonomous Aircraft Integration (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in Washington, DC, Boston, MA, or San Diego, California. Travel to test sites, customer locations, and flight integration events is typically 30–40% of the year.

Salary: $160,000–$240,000 per year, plus bonus, benefits, and equity for regular employees.

Company

hirify.global is a venture-backed defense technology company developing intelligent autonomy software, unmanned aircraft, and simulation and synthetic reality technologies for Department of Defense applications.

What you will do

• Integrate autonomy software with unmanned aircraft, onboard computing, sensors, and control interfaces.
• Build, configure, and validate flight-ready systems while coordinating hardware and software compatibility.
• Support live flight operations with safety checks, system bring-up, troubleshooting, and mission-critical issue resolution.
• Debug embedded autonomy systems, capture flight data, and perform post-test analysis with autonomy engineers.
• Collaborate with autonomy, GNC, systems, and test teams to validate functionality and improve deployment reliability.
• Support certification, airworthiness, compliance documentation, and system-level validation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, electrical, mechanical, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 5 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 4 years with a master’s degree, or 2 years with a PhD.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python, Linux-based development, shell scripting, system diagnostics, and embedded systems.
• Experience with real-time operating systems, sensor integration, sensor fusion, and middleware such as ROS or DDS.
• Hands-on experience supporting flight demonstrations or live exercises, plus simulation tools such as AFSIM or NGTS.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Nice to have

• Experience with unmanned aerial systems, flight test campaigns, autonomy stacks, flight controls, or GNC pipelines.
• Experience with electronics debugging, avionics bring-up, and automation tools for testing, logging, or data parsing.
• Experience interfacing with Department of Defense stakeholders and familiarity with UCI and OMS standards.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on work across hardware, software, and systems engineering in laboratory and field environments.
• Collaboration with multidisciplinary autonomy, GNC, systems, and test teams.
• Regular employee package includes bonus, benefits, and equity.
• Equal opportunity workplace with accommodation support for candidates with disabilities or special needs.