Senior Engineering Manager – Firestorm OS

Firestorm•San Diego, CA

5d•$175,000 - $220,000•Onsite

About The Position

Firestorm builds modular autonomous aircraft designed to adapt across missions, payloads, and deployment environments. Firestorm OS is the common software platform that enables those aircraft. It provides the Linux-based services, communications, media, hardware interfaces, SDKs, and system capabilities used across Firestorm aircraft and their variants. As the aircraft portfolio grows, Firestorm OS has to remain reusable across different sensors, payloads, radios, propulsion systems, and compute platforms while providing stable interfaces to autonomy and application software. We are hiring a Senior Engineering Manager to lead the Firestorm OS team. You will own the team, technical direction, and execution of the platform while remaining close to the architecture and software. You will work across autonomy, avionics, electrical, mechanical, and systems engineering to build an OS platform that evolves Firestorm’s aircraft portfolio.

Requirements

8+ years building and shipping embedded, systems, or Linux-based software
3+ years leading software engineering teams with responsibility for people, execution, and delivery
Strong C or C++ experience and deep embedded Linux fundamentals
Experience designing software platforms, APIs, or shared services used across multiple products or systems
Experience developing Linux applications, system services, networking, and software that interfaces with hardware
Experience integrating software across complex hardware and software boundaries
Strong understanding of reliability, debugging, testing, and release practices for deployed systems
Demonstrated ability to make technical tradeoffs and drive ambiguous system problems from architecture through delivery
Strong written and verbal communication across software and hardware engineering teams
Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance

Nice To Haves

Experience building software for autonomous systems, robotics, aircraft, or other complex embedded products
Experience with vehicle or robotics interfaces such as MAVLink, PX4, ArduPilot, or similar platforms
Experience building SDKs, hardware abstraction layers, or platform APIs for other engineering teams

Responsibilities

Lead Firestorm OS — Own the team responsible for the common software platform across Firestorm aircraft.
Drive platform architecture — Define system boundaries, interfaces, services, and abstractions that allow Firestorm OS to support multiple aircraft and hardware configurations.
Build reusable aircraft software — Lead development of Linux services, communications, media, radios, SDKs, hardware interfaces, and other shared platform capabilities.
Drive platform execution — Turn aircraft and product needs into clear priorities, technical work, and reliable software releases.
Own cross-system integration — Work with autonomy, avionics, payload, electrical, and systems teams to integrate new hardware and capabilities without creating one-off solutions.
Set the engineering bar — Establish strong practices for design, testing, code review, diagnostics, packaging, deployment, and release.
Debug the full system — Lead resolution of difficult problems that cross application software, Linux, networking, hardware, and aircraft interfaces.
Grow the team — Hire, develop, and lead engineers with strong embedded Linux and systems software fundamentals.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plans
401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
Equity grants for new hires
Unlimited PTO
Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in July & December.
Generous Parental Leave
Lifestyle Spending Account
FSA
DCFSA
HSA
Hospital Indemnity insurance
Critical Illness insurance
Accident insurance
Basic Life/AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance, 100% covered by Firestorm. Plus, the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your family.
Mental Health Resources: We provide free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more. Additional work-life services, such as free legal and financial support, are available to you as well.