Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration
Senior technical leader defining autonomy architecture and integration strategy for launched effects platforms in multi-agent, often disconnected environments. Owns end-to-end development, fielding, and operational support of mission behaviors, platform control, and fleet-scale autonomy for defense customers.
About the job
What You'll Do
Technical Strategy & Portfolio Leadership – Define the long-term technical direction for the Launched Effects portfolio; drive common integration patterns, architecture, and engineering strategy that enable scalable fleet operations across current and future programs.
Develop & Field Autonomy – Guide the development and integration of mission autonomy, platform interfaces, executive autonomy, multi-agent coordination, and fleet-scale deployment capabilities while ensuring successful operational delivery across launched effects programs.
Collaboration Across Teams & Partners – Build strong technical partnerships across the Autonomy Capabilities team, Perception team, feature crews, autopilot vendors, C2 providers, customer organizations, and engineering leadership; influence architecture and technical direction beyond the portfolio.
Design & Documentation – Lead cross-functional architecture reviews, interface standards, ICDs, and post-mortems while raising engineering rigor and technical consistency across multiple organizations.
Mentorship & Organizational Growth – Mentor Staff and Senior engineers, develop future technical leaders, contribute to engineering standards and leveling, and partner with managers on senior hiring.
Pre-deployment Preparation – Guide Capability Release planning, fleet-scale deployment strategies, mission validation, and operational readiness across multiple programs.
On-site Test & Mission Support – Provide senior technical leadership during critical flight tests, customer demonstrations, and operational exercises where deep systems integration expertise is required.
Hardware/Software Debugging – Lead resolution of the organization's most complex autonomy integration challenges spanning software, embedded systems, networking, platform interfaces, and operational environments.
Mission Data & Debrief Support – Drive post-mission analysis, identify systemic improvements, and influence long-term technical investments based on operational learnings.
Continuous Improvement – Drive organization-wide improvements to engineering processes, testing infrastructure, integration workflows, developer experience, and mission reliability.
C2 Interoperability & Standards – Define technical strategy for command-and-control interoperability; shape interface evolution with internal and external stakeholders while driving adoption of common message and open-systems standards (e.g., UCI, OMS, MOSA, WOSA, TAK/CoT).
Hiring & Developing Technical Talent – Define the technical hiring bar for senior engineering roles, partner with engineering managers on long-term staffing strategy, and help grow the organization's technical capabilities.
Required Qualifications
- BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent practical experience.
- Typically requires 10+ years of relevant experience.
- Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.
- Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs.
- Proven track record influencing architecture and solving highly complex autonomy integration challenges.
- Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence across an organization.
- Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Extensive experience with launched effects, autonomous systems, or distributed robotic platforms.
- Experience defining autopilot integration strategies and multi-agent autonomy architectures.
- Experience leading fleet-scale or disconnected operational deployments.
- Experience with military operational testing and international defense customers.
- Experience with UCI, OMS, MOSA, WOSA, TAK/CoT, or similar open architectures.
- Experience shaping engineering practices across multiple teams or organizations.
Skills
C++, Linux, Autonomy Architecture, Multi-Agent Coordination, C2 Interoperability, Uci, Oms, Mosa, Wosa, Tak/Cot, Embedded Systems, Motion Planning, Track Fusion
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