Senior Payloads Software Engineer
Integrates and deploys software payloads on autonomous ground-vehicle hardware, validates field performance, and improves system behavior through testing and cross-functional collaboration. Requires 3+ years of relevant experience, strong C/C++ skills, hardware integration experience, and a bachelor's degree or equivalent expertise.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Integrate and deploy payloads on customer-bound hardware platforms and validate them in real-world conditions.
- Work with internal teams and end users to deliver new behaviors, payload integrations, and mission use cases.
- Analyze interactions among sensing, compute, controls, and other autonomous-vehicle subsystems to improve overall performance.
- Analyze test results, identify issues and root causes, and collaborate with engineering teams to resolve problems.
- Translate customer requirements into delivered autonomy capabilities with business development and engineering teams.
- Travel 10–25% or 25–50%, depending on candidate preference and role placement; commute to Arlington, VA as needed.
Requirements
- 3 or more years of relevant experience.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, robotics, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated skill.
- Experience integrating software on hardware systems, including sensors, effectors, and compute platforms.
- Strong programming skills in C or C++.
- Experience with vehicle networks and diagnostics, including CAN, CAN-FD, Ethernet, FlexRay, UDS, and J1939, plus logging and trace tools.
- Software design, unit testing, debugging, algorithms, data structures, and software design principles.
- Ability to deliver production-quality software in a continuously integrated environment.
- Clean, maintainable code and documentation practices.
- Team collaboration and proactive problem solving.
Preferred Qualifications
- Software development for robotics and autonomous systems.
- Open architectures such as IOP, MOSA, SOSA, or FACE.
- Safety-critical systems such as MIL-STD-882, ISO-26262, or DO-178.
- Python and Java.
- ROS2.
- State machines and motion or path planning.
- JIRA.
- Navigation, mapping algorithms, and robot perception.
- Real-time operating systems and embedded programming.
- Leadership on cross-functional software teams.
Compensation and Benefits
- US salary range: $120,000–$200,000.
- Equity is included in most full-time, high-demand roles.
- Premium healthcare benefits, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for employees and dependents.
- Forterra-paid basic life/AD&D and short- and long-term disability insurance.
- Company holiday calendar with a December winter break.
- 20 days of accrued PTO per year.
- At least 7 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
- $9,000 annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
- 401(k) plan with company match up to 4%.
Skills
C, C++, Python, Java, Ros2, Can, Can-Fd, Ethernet, Flexray, Uds, J1939, Jira, Motion Planning, Path Planning, Robot Perception
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