Senior Staff Engineer, UxS Integration and Systems

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior technical focal point for Hivemind integration and test readiness across unmanned aircraft, robotic systems, representative test vehicles, onboard compute, radios, sensors, payloads, and supporting ground equipment.
• Lead hands-on integration and troubleshooting across autonomy software, hardware, flight controllers, communications systems, networking, operator interfaces, and field operations.
• Evaluate platforms for Hivemind development, validation, training, demonstrations, and customer objectives.
• Take systems from benchtop integration through representative testing, field execution, and operationally relevant demonstrations.
• Provide technical judgment on platform suitability, integration complexity, test readiness, risk, safety, maintainability, cost, availability, and customer value.
• Support simulated, hardware-in-the-loop, live-vehicle, and flight-test environments.
• Define readiness criteria, test expectations, operating assumptions, and handoff points.
• Diagnose cross-disciplinary issues across software, autonomy, hardware, flight test, networking, and operations.
• Improve test methods, metrics, evidence practices, automation, tooling, and data-review workflows.
• Capture lessons from platform bring-up, test events, flight operations, and demonstrations.
• Mentor engineers and operators on systems integration, hardware readiness, troubleshooting, and autonomy test execution.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in UxS or UAS systems integration, robotics hardware integration, autonomy test operations, flight test, field engineering, embedded systems, or similar hands-on technical roles.
• Experience leading complex integration across hardware, software, autonomy, networking, communications, sensors, and operational test environments.
• Experience bringing up, configuring, operating, and troubleshooting unmanned systems, onboard compute, flight controllers, radios, sensors, ground stations, and test equipment.
• Working knowledge of Linux, embedded systems, networking, system configuration, data collection, logs, services, and field diagnostics.
• Experience with autopilot or flight-control ecosystems such as PX4, ArduPilot, MAVLink, Pixhawk/Cube-class flight controllers, QGroundControl, Mission Planner, or equivalent systems.
• Experience supporting simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, live-vehicle, field, or flight-test environments.
• Ability to develop and communicate test plans, readiness criteria, operating assumptions, technical recommendations, and post-test findings.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, debugging, ownership, urgency, and judgment.
• Ability to lead through influence across engineering, test, product, operations, field, and customer-facing teams.
• Familiarity with scripting, automation, or data analysis using Python, Bash, MATLAB, or similar tools.
• Ability to comply with export-control, safety, security, customer-site, and mission-specific requirements.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance; U.S. citizenship required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Hivemind, autonomy SDKs, autonomous aircraft, robotics middleware, simulation infrastructure, or edge-deployed autonomy software.
• Experience with NVIDIA Jetson, embedded Linux, systemd services, containerized deployment, device provisioning, and field updates.
• Experience with RF/radio setup, mesh networking, tactical datalinks, software-defined radios, or communications-degraded testing.
• Experience supporting flight test, range operations, customer trials, operational rehearsals, or complex demonstrations.
• Experience integrating EO/IR cameras, gimbals, lidar, GPS/GNSS, IMUs, payloads, or perception sensors.
• Experience with test automation, regression frameworks, data validation, performance benchmarking, or CI/CD-integrated testing.
• Familiarity with C++ for debugging, interface review, or collaboration with software engineering teams.
• FAA Part 107, private pilot, military UAS, aviation maintenance, flight-test, or range-safety experience.
• Experience defining reference configurations, hardware baselines, supported configurations, or setup guidance.