Senior Software Engineer, Dropship and Cargo

Pyka • Alameda, CA

14d • $166,000 - $205,000

About The Position

Pyka's goal is to provide society with a new form of safe, clean, and cost-effective transportation enabled by autonomous electric aviation. To get there, we’re taking a different approach than most. We're applying our technologies to every industry where autonomous electric aircraft can be useful, starting with the highest value and most dangerous jobs. In doing so, we're building game-changing products manufactured at scale, while perfecting the safety, reliability, and capabilities of our autonomy engine and electric propulsion systems. We design, develop and manufacture an ecosystem of technologies including proprietary flight control software, avionics, high power density motors, motor controllers, batteries, and custom carbon-fiber composite airframes. Today, we supply autonomous electric aircraft for cargo transport and crop protection to real-world customers across four separate continents and have secured industry-first regulatory approvals from the FAA. Our cargo aircraft enables remote connectivity, enhances express delivery networks, and ensures fast and reliable shipping of critical supplies to areas in need. Our crop protection aircraft offers agricultural services providers and farmers an autonomous tool to make aerial application safer, more precise, and less harmful to surrounding environments. Both vehicles are highly economical to operate, easy to deploy, and significantly reduce CO2 emissions in their respective industries. What you work on at Pyka makes people’s lives better now and brings the future of electric aviation one step closer each day.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional experience with C++ (ideally C++11 or newer)
• Professional experience with Python
• Depth in at least one of: path planning, controls, state estimation, sensor integration, or embedded and powertrain control
• A track record of taking ownership of unfamiliar technical domains
• Experience owning software for a subsystem across multiple teams
• Experience working on real-world robotic or vehicle systems, especially where software interacts with hardware
• Comfort working across the stack from low-level systems to user-facing tools
• Working knowledge of trigonometry and linear algebra

Nice To Haves

• Exposure to energy management, hybrid or electric powertrains, or engine control is a plus
• Willingness to travel to flight test and field sites

Responsibilities

• Own the software for the Dropship and Cargo programs: collect requirements from our test teams and commercial and military customers, define what the aircraft needs to do, build most of it, and specify the remainder clearly enough for others to build against
• Delegate work when scope requires it, and stay accountable for the result either way
• Break down ambiguous problems (e.g., new aircraft capabilities, energy and range tradeoffs, operational tooling) into plans, and adapt them as flight test and operations produce new information
• Write production-quality code in C++17 and Python across the aircraft stack, including testing and validation
• Support flight testing directly: be present for tests, review flight data, and diagnose what the aircraft did and why
• Work with propulsion, hardware, product, and flight operations to make practical tradeoffs between range, payload, reserve, and schedule
• Represent software in program-level decisions, including giving the program an honest read on what is and is not ready
• Provide technical leadership through design reviews, debugging support, and mentorship of other engineers

Benefits

• $166,000–$205,000 salary per year + equity. Compensation will vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Salary ranges are subject to change.
• Employer-sponsored health, dental and vision insurance
• FSA with employer matching
• 401(k)
• Paid holidays, generous PTO, and additional unpaid time off
• Voluntary short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• Free catered lunch and plenty of snacks

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed