Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy
Own and scale the autonomy stack (perception, planning, control) running onboard swarming UAVs, extending it with agentic AI and hardening inter-robot and C2 comms for degraded/contested environments. Built in systems languages (Go/Rust/C++) for soft-real-time embedded hardware, with up to 25% travel for field testing.
- Compensation
- $220K–$300K / yr
- Location
- Remote
- Work setup
- Remote
- Seniority
- Staff
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- 3+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field
- 3+ years building soft-real-time embedded systems
- Deep expertise in at least one systems language (Golang, Rust, or C/C++)
- Proven experience deploying and validating robotics algorithms (Dubins planning, SLAM, Kalman filters, particle filters, A*, behavior trees, reinforcement learning, etc.)
- Working knowledge of embedded systems (SPI/I2C/serial protocols, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, microcontroller programming)
- Strong networking fundamentals (NAT, mDNS, UDP/TCP, multicast, firewall configuration)
- Excellent software engineering practices with emphasis on testable, reliable code
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual, or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations (ITAR)
- Willingness to travel up to 25% for onsite test and integration events
Nice to have
- Experience with perception systems, sensor fusion, or multi-target tracking (Kalman-based trackers, JPDA, MHT, or similar)
- Contributions to deployed robotics or IoT systems requiring complex edge processing (aerospace, autonomous vehicles, etc.)
- Experience with robotics middleware (DDS/ROS2, ZeroMQ, gRPC) and serialization formats (Protobuf)
- Familiarity with government UxS interoperability standards (OMS/UCI, STANAG 4586, FACE)
- Hands-on electronics skills (breadboarding, soldering, schematic interpretation, datasheet analysis)
- Deep learning experience
Full description
Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results.
The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.
About the Role
We've built an autonomy stack that already runs on real programs and real hardware, and we designed it to be platform-agnostic from the start. The next step is the one that matters most: scaling it onto our own aircraft to field the largest drone swarm in the world. We're looking for a Software Engineer, Autonomy to own that stack and lead the work.
This is a high-leverage technical role. You'll own the architectural direction for the perception, planning, and control systems running onboard every vehicle in the swarm, and you'll raise the bar for the autonomy engineers building around you.
What You'll Do
- Own and evolve our autonomy stack, extending proven robotic foundations with agentic AI for onboard reasoning, adaptation, and swarm coordination at scale.
- Harden and extend the inter-robot and C2 communication protocols behind tactical swarm decision making on the edge, including under degraded and contested comms.
- Revisit and defend the hard technical tradeoffs as we move to aircraft and scale: onboard vs. offboard compute, centralized vs. distributed decision making, determinism vs. adaptability. Some of our current answers carry over. Some won't survive the move to airborne compute and contested comms. You'll decide which.
- Take autonomy capability from integration and test into fielded operation, and close the loop from test data back into the stack.
- Mentor and technically guide a growing team of robotics engineers.
- Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code, and set the standard for what good looks like.
- Travel up to 25% of the time for onsite test and integration events.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field.
- 3+ years building soft-real-time embedded systems.
- Deep expertise in at least one systems language (Golang, Rust, or C/C++).
- Proven experience deploying and validating robotics algorithms (Dubins planning, SLAM, Kalman filters, particle filters, A*, behavior trees, reinforcement learning, etc.).