Staff Software Engineer (Autonomous Pilot Integration)

Location: On-site in Washington, DC; San Diego, California; or Boston, Massachusetts. Travel is typically 10–20% of the year to offices, customer sites, and integration or test events.

Company

Develops autonomy software for unmanned platforms across air, maritime, space, and effects or expendable systems for U.S. Department of Defense and international defense customers.

What you will do

• Develop, integrate, configure, and field autonomy software across unmanned platforms, onboard compute, sensors, payload computers, and command-and-control interfaces.
• Lead a feature crew or sub-program through technical design, implementation, integration, validation, and delivery.
• Coordinate with autonomy, perception, feature, platform-integrator, autopilot, and C2 teams; author and negotiate interface control documents and interface contracts.
• Prepare mission-ready systems, perform hardware/software compatibility checks, and support flight tests, range exercises, on-water trials, and integration events.
• Debug embedded autonomy stacks and analyze memory, CPU, timing, mission data, and simulation results under operationally representative loads.
• Mentor engineers, conduct interviews, drive design reviews and post-mortems, and improve integration processes, testing, reliability, and documentation.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Typically 7+ years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 5+ years with a master’s degree, or 4+ years with a PhD, or equivalent experience.
• Proficiency in C++ and experience developing or integrating real-time or latency-sensitive systems.
• Proficiency in Linux-based development, embedded systems, shell scripting, system diagnostics, and middleware, publish-subscribe, or IPC frameworks.
• Experience with autonomy simulation, field or mission testing, full-stack troubleshooting, technical leadership, mentoring, and interface contract or ICD ownership.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Nice to have

• Experience with unmanned systems, autonomy stacks, motion planning, vehicle-control integration, autopilot platforms, or vehicle electronics bring-up.
• Python, Docker, k3s, k3d, CMake, Conan, CI/CD, and automation tools for testing, logging, or data parsing.
• Experience with C2 standards such as A-GRA, UCI, or OMS and government-furnished simulation environments such as AFSIM or NGTS.
• Experience working with DoD stakeholders, customer-facing technical relationships, or partner organizations.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employee position with hands-on work across laboratory, field, and live mission environments.
• Regular collaboration across autonomy, perception, platform integration, and command-and-control disciplines.
• Opportunities to lead technical programs, mentor engineers, and influence engineering standards and processes.