Embedded Linux Engineer

SiFly•Santa Clara, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

SiFly Aviation is hiring a senior Embedded Linux Engineer to own aircraft connectivity and networking across its aircraft, DroneFi ground station, and pilot application. The role centers on keeping a Q12 reachable over 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi HaLow; routing and prioritizing traffic as links degrade; and maintaining video, telemetry, and command-and-control through in-flight handovers. The engineer will take ownership of the Dynamic Routing Engine, link-management daemons, secure cloud overlay, and testing systems, becoming the primary technical guide for DroneFi development with support from the senior architect responsible for low-level networking foundations. The engineer will develop services in C, C++, and Python on a Yocto-based platform. Responsibilities span multi-link connectivity, routing and QoS, resilient video and telemetry, application-network integration, secure overlays, instrumentation, test rigs, platform integration, and support for connected subsystems. The role works closely with embedded platform, firmware, applications, autonomy, cloud, hardware, and RF teams, including on antenna placement and airframe integration. The position is on-site in Santa Clara, California. Compensation is listed as $150,000–$180,000.

Requirements

At least 5 years of professional experience in embedded Linux development with a networking or connectivity focus.
A bachelor’s degree or higher in a related program, such as Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a similar field.

Responsibilities

Own, design, implement, and harden the Dynamic Routing Engine, including link metrics and scoring, switching policy and hysteresis, failover timing, and behavior at the edge of coverage.
Own Linux-side cellular, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi HaLow connectivity, including modem management, association and roaming, bonding, make-before-break handover, and graceful degradation.
Implement and manage routing and traffic policy across multiple tables and interfaces, including nftables, tc-based QoS and shaping, VLANs, bridges, and network namespaces.
Tune WebRTC (WHIP/WHEP), RTP video, adaptive bitrate and congestion control, MQTT keepalive and reconnect behavior, and MAVLink routing for lossy, high-latency links.
Work with the applications team to expose link state, quality, and bandwidth signals and to make onboard and ground-side software resilient to degradation, handover, and offline periods.
Own the secure overlay, including the Tailscale/WireGuard mesh, TLS, per-aircraft identity and certificate provisioning, NAT traversal, and scalable addressing.
Instrument the network with per-link signal quality, latency, loss, jitter, and throughput metrics, and structured connectivity logging.
Build network emulation and test setups using netem, programmable attenuators, shielded and bench setups, and structured field and drive testing; quantify handover time, packet loss, and throughput versus range, and reproduce field failures on the bench.
Integrate services into the Yocto-based image as containerized or systemd-managed services with appropriate configuration and device management.
Work with the platform team and firmware owners on modem, Wi-Fi, and radio drivers.
Provide network-side integration and debugging for Remote ID, ADS-B-In, and ground-side Pilot, Crew, HQ, and mobile applications.
Collaborate with embedded platform, firmware, applications, autonomy, cloud, hardware, and RF teams, including on antenna placement and airframe integration.