Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities

Responsibilities

• Design tactical autonomy algorithms enabling unmanned aircraft to perform complex missions across air, land, and sea domains with minimal human supervision.
• Develop high-performance C++ software modules for planning, decision-making, and behavior execution in dynamic and adversarial environments.
• Implement and test behavior architectures supporting multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability.
• Integrate classical autonomy and machine-learning approaches, including rule-based systems and reinforcement learning.
• Collaborate with perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight-test teams.
• Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and flight demonstrations.
• Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures and optimize behavior models.
• Research and prototype algorithms, identify tactical capability gaps, and contribute to the autonomy roadmap.
• Adapt autonomy solutions to evolving defense program needs, compliance requirements, and operational feedback.
• Act as technical owner for software systems across requirements, roadmap management, design, implementation, sustainment, and evolution.
• Lead multidisciplinary teams, set technical direction, manage project lifecycles, and mentor junior engineers.
• Travel approximately 10–15% of the year to offices, customer sites, and flight-integration events.

Required Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in software subsystem scheduling and integration, behavior planning, task and resource allocation, motion planning, optimization, or flight controls.
• Proficiency in production-level C++ software development.
• Experience with collaborative software development tools for version control, issue tracking, code reviews, and release management.
• Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, set technical direction, and manage projects from concept through deployment.
• Ability to learn independently, mentor junior team members, and build team cohesion.
• Ability to own an entire software system and engage stakeholders, define requirements, manage roadmaps, coordinate teams, and support system evolution.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience spanning multiple technology readiness levels, including transitioning research-grade concepts to operational systems.
• Mission-systems integration experience, including integration events or flight demonstrations.
• Experience with collaborative mission planning, behavior planning, synchronized teaming, automated tactics, motion planning, weapons target assignment, sensor-target pairing, sensor-centric control laws, collision avoidance, geofencing, or safety monitoring.
• Experience across multiple operational effects and domains, such as strike, air combat, surveillance, reconnaissance, air, space, maritime, or ground systems.
• Experience with robotics software such as ROS, OMPL, and optimization solvers.
• Experience with simulation environments such as AFSIM and NGTS.
• Familiarity with navigation and communications systems, systems engineering methodologies, product delivery lifecycles, and high-assurance software processes such as DO-178C or equivalent MIL-STD standards.