Senior SDK Engineer

Firestorm•San Diego, CA

2d•$164,000 - $183,000•Remote

About The Position

Firestorm is seeking a Senior SDK Engineer to join our Software team and help shape SparkSDK —the toolkit developers use to integrate vehicle payloads, sensors, and data links into Firestorm’s ecosystem. You’ll report to the SparkSDK lead, and work closely with platform, autonomy, avionics, and applications teams to build a robust, secure, and developer-friendly SDK that powers real defense missions. This is a high-impact, hands-on engineering role focused on designing and delivering a modular, cross-platform SDK with clean APIs, strong versioning guarantees, and first-class language wrappers/FFIs. You’ll implement a C/C++ core and expose it to multiple languages (C, C++, Java, Python, C#, etc.), enabling integrators to quickly connect to WarRoom and other Firestorm apps and services, application gateways, vehicle onboard services, and ground control software. You’ll help ensure interoperability with industry and defense standards while upholding security and performance requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
5+ years professional experience building SDKs/libraries or platform APIs in modern C++ (C++17/10) with cross-platform delivery (Linux/Windows/Android).
U.S. Citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.
Proven experience creating and maintaining language wrappers/FFIs for at least two of: Java, Python, C# (plus C/C++). Rust FFI experience is a strong plus.
Strong integration background with real-time or mission-critical systems (3+ years) including async/event-driven networking (TCP/UDP, REST, WebSockets, DDS/gRPC/ZeroMQ).
Familiarity with industry/defense protocols and standards (e.g., RAS-A, MAVLink, STANAG 4586, OMS/UCI, Link 16) and data serialization (Protobuf/FlatBuffers).
Expertise in secure coding and dependency hygiene (OpenSSL, libsodium, memory safety, fuzzing, sanitizers).
Cross-platform build and packaging: CMake, Conan/vcpkg; Linux (deb/rpm/AppImage, systemd), Windows (MSVC/MinGW, windeploy/MSI/MSIX), Android (Gradle/JNI/APK signing).
Excellent problem-solving and communication skills; comfortable driving features end-to-end (requirements → design → implementation → testing → release).

Nice To Haves

Prior work on developer platforms/SDKs with rigorous API design, SemVer discipline, and long-term compatibility guarantees.
Experience with ROS 2 (rclcpp/DDS), gRPC, ZeroMQ, and protocol gateways/bridges.
Knowledge of telemetry pipelines and observability for SDKs (structured logs, metrics, distributed tracing).
Experience in embedded/Linux environments (Yocto/Buildroot, cross-compilation, OTA updates) and constrained targets.
Performance tuning and profiling across languages (perf, VTune, Valgrind, sanitizers) and build/toolchain optimization.
Familiarity with geospatial data and formats common in UxS domains; prior exposure to GCS integrations is a plus.
Experience developing to MIL-STD/DO-178C or similar safety/security standards.
Track record of mentoring peers, conducting code reviews, and enforcing modern C++/API best practices.

Responsibilities

Design and implement SparkSDK core modules in modern C++.
Build and maintain language bindings and FFIs (e.g., C ABI/PInvoke, JNI/JNA, pybind11/cffi, C# P/Invoke/Source Generators; Rust FFI as a bonus) to deliver first-class developer experiences across C/C++, Java, Python, and C#.
Define clean, versioned APIs (SemVer, deprecation strategy) and deliver SDK packages, installers, and artifacts across Linux, Windows, and Android (e.g., deb/rpm/AppImage, MSI/MSIX, AAR/APK add-ons).
Integrate comms and payload protocols and data models/IDLs (e.g., Protobuf/FlatBuffers); implement adapters to EmberCore and message middleware.
Own the developer experience: samples, quickstarts, idiomatic wrappers, error models, logging/telemetry hooks, and clear documentation that make integration fast and intuitive.
Engineer for real-time and mission-critical use: deterministic behavior, back-pressure, zero-copy paths, bounded latencies, and graceful degradation on CPU/GPU-constrained hardware.
Harden security by default: memory-safe patterns, least-privilege design, secure transport (OpenSSL/libsodium), key/material handling, and supply-chain integrity for third-party deps.
Build reliability into CI/CD: cross-platform builds (CMake, Conan/vcpkg), automated unit/integration tests (Catch2/GoogleTest, pytest, JUnit, NUnit), fuzzing, sanitizers, codegen validation.
Collaborate across teams and with partners to gather requirements, refine APIs, and support field integrations; contribute to platform-wide architecture and roadmap discussions.
Contribute to operability: diagnostics, tracing, metrics, compatibility matrices, and upgrade playbooks for customers in the field.

Benefits

We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plans
401(k) Retirement Savings Plan to invest in your long-term retirement goals
Equity grants for new hires
Unlimited PTO
Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in November, & 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.