Senior Flight Software Engineer

Anduril • Costa Mesa, CA

1d

About The Position

The Vehicle Management Systems (VMS) software team, which is part of Anduril's Tactical Recon and Strike (TRS) division, develops flight computer vehicle software for small drones (Group 1–3). The team is enhancing the current Altius VMS to support modularity, clean abstractions, and faster new-aircraft development cycles—laying the groundwork for scalable, reusable flight software across the TRS product line. As a Senior Flight Software Engineer, you will be responsible for developing the embedded software that powers Anduril’s aircraft while working alongside a team of engineers with a diverse set of backgrounds and skills. Anduril has a collaborative culture with plenty of opportunities for ownership. As an early member of the team, your decisions today will have a large impact on the company now and into the future, as well as on our customers. You’ll own sections of the flight stack end-to-end — from device drivers and middleware integration to control law implementation, test automation, and flight validation. Expect to work closely with GNC, hardware, manufacturing, and operations teams, lead technical design reviews, and mentor junior engineers. This role is ideal for someone who thrives on real-world engineering constraints and wants to see the code they ship fly on mission-critical systems.

Requirements

• 7+ years of C++ or Rust programming experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Direct experience with embedded software or other safety-critical systems.
• Background in low-level embedded software architecture, design and development.
• Low-level device driver development experience; familiarity with both microcontrollers and application processors.
• Comfortable with typical embedded systems tools, compilers, debuggers, and IDEs.
• Familiarity with communications busses and protocols such as CAN, CAN FD, UART/RS232/RS422/RS485, SPI, QSPI, I2C, Ethernet, etc.
• Strong debugging skills, comfortable using instrumentation such as oscilloscopes and protocol analyzers.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Strong vehicle systems and avionics design knowledge.
• Experience building flight stacks or working with PX4/ArduPilot or proprietary autopilots.
• Familiarity with control systems, state estimation, and guidance algorithms.
• Bias toward delivery and rapid iteration to discover the right engineering investments.
• Willingness to take calculated risks and full accountability for outcomes.
• Passion for solving real-world problems quickly and effectively.
• Track record of designing, building, and delivering useful software to users — we want to hear war stories!
• Experience with SITL/HITL frameworks, CI for embedded systems, and creating reproducible test environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement vehicle control systems.
• Develop embedded software for pre-emptible Linux or RTOS applications.
• Develop device drivers, protocols, and APIs for aircraft sensors.
• Integrate new features and sensors into flight controller software.
• Integrate guidance and control algorithms with the flight software stack.
• Create Software-In-The-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-In-The-Loop (HITL) test fixtures and automation.
• Analyze flight test results and iterate quickly on fixes and improvements.
• Support device manufacturing efforts, debugging, and production-level test.
• Support operational aircraft deployments and field troubleshooting.
• Mentor junior engineers and help improve team engineering practices and test infrastructure.

Benefits

• Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package.
• Top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including: comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior