# Senior Payloads Software Engineer

**Company:** [Forterra](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/forterra)
**Location:** Arlington, VA, Clarksburg, MD
**Role:** Embedded Engineering
**Salary:** $120k – $200k/yr
**Experience:** 3+ years
**Skills:** C++, Python, Java, Ros2, Can, Can-Fd, Ethernet, Flexray, Uds/J1939, Jira
**Posted:** 2026-05-12

> Designs, develops, and deploys software for autonomous ground vehicles and robotics payloads. Integrates sensors/effectors on hardware, optimizes vehicle systems, and collaborates with teams for real-world mission deployment. Requires 3+ years experience, C/C++ proficiency, and robotics familiarity.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Integrate and deploy payloads on customer-bound hardware platforms and validate in real-world conditions.
- Work across the organization and directly with end-users to deliver new behaviors, payload integrations, and emerging mission use-cases.
- Take a holistic view of autonomous vehicle behavior—how sensing, compute, controls, and other subsystems interact—and drive overall performance improvements.
- Analyze test results, identify issues and root causes, and collaborate with engineering teams to drive problems to resolution.
- Partner across business development and engineering teams to translate customer requirements into delivered autonomy capabilities.

## Qualifications
- 3 or more years of relevant experience.
- B.S. in computer science, engineering, robotics, or related field or relevant experience/show of skill.
- Experience in integrating software on hardware systems, including sensors, effectors, and compute platforms.
- **Strong programming skills in C/C++ (preferred)**.
- Experience with vehicle networks and diagnostics (**CAN, CAN-FD, Ethernet, FlexRay, UDS/J1939**) and logging/trace tools.
- Solid core software engineering skills: software design, unit testing, debugging.
- Ability to consistently deliver production-quality software in a continuously integrated environment.
- Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, and software design principles.
- Demonstrates clean, maintainable code and documentation practices.
- Experience working in teams and a willingness to proactively solve problems.

## Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in software development for robotics and autonomous systems.
- Experience working with open architectures (e.g., **IOP, MOSA, SOSA, FACE**).
- Experience with safety-critical systems (e.g., **MIL-STD-882, ISO-26262, DO-178**).
- Experience programming in **Python** and **Java**.
- Experience with **ROS2**.
- Experience with state machines and motion / path planning.
- Experience with issue tracking (**JIRA**).
- Knowledge of navigation, mapping algorithms and robot perception.
- Familiarity with real-time operating systems and embedded programming.
- Leadership experience on cross-functional software teams.

## Compensation
**US Salary Range: $120,000—$200,000** (base salary, plus equity and competitive benefits including premium healthcare, PTO, parental leave, 401(k) match, tuition reimbursement).

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