Senior Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration (Autonomy)

Location: San Mateo, California, United States; on-site. The role includes travel to test sites, customer sites, office locations, and flight integration events for approximately 30–40% of the year.

Salary: $195,840–$293,760 per year, plus bonus, benefits, and equity for regular employees.

Company

hirify.global is a venture-backed defense-tech company developing intelligent systems, including autonomy software, unmanned aircraft, and simulation technologies.

What you will do

• Integrate autonomy software onto unmanned aircraft across onboard compute, sensors, and control interfaces.
• Build, configure, validate, and prepare systems for flight and mission deployment.
• Support live flight operations with safety checks, system bring-up, and time-critical troubleshooting.
• Debug autonomy software stacks, embedded systems, electronics, and avionics in laboratory and field environments.
• Capture and analyze flight data, collaborating with autonomy, GNC, systems, and test teams to improve system behavior.
• Develop integration, testing, logging, and data-processing tools while supporting certification, airworthiness, and compliance activities.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, electrical, mechanical, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 2 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, or equivalent professional experience; master’s or PhD candidates with relevant internships may also qualify.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python, Linux-based development, shell scripting, embedded systems, RTOS, and system diagnostics.
• Knowledge of sensor integration, sensor fusion, and middleware frameworks such as ROS and DDS.
• Hands-on experience supporting flight demonstrations or live exercises, plus experience with 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-control systems, or GNC pipelines.
• Experience with electronics debugging, avionics bring-up, and automation tools for system testing, logging, and data parsing.
• Experience interfacing with DoD stakeholders and familiarity with UCI and OMS standards.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on work spanning hardware, software, and systems engineering in laboratory and field environments.
• Collaboration across autonomy, GNC, systems, and test disciplines.
• Regular employee package includes bonus, benefits, and equity.
• Compensation reflects skills, experience, licenses, certifications, and work location.