Senior Software Engineer

RED CAT HOLDINGS•Torrance, CA

42d•$132,000 - $183,000•Onsite

About The Position

FlightWave Aerospace is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to develop embedded software for autonomous aircraft and uncrewed aerial systems. The engineer will own production C and C++ software across microcontrollers and Linux-based application processors, integrate sensors and perception capabilities, and support systems from architecture and hardware bring-up through ground and flight testing. The role requires diagnosing issues that may span software, electronics, sensors, networks, and vehicle behavior, and partnering with electrical, systems, controls, autonomy, test, manufacturing, and flight-operations teams. The role covers software development across real-time operating systems and embedded Linux, including board-support, device-interface, middleware, and application-layer software. It also includes sensor and perception integration, performance optimization, system interfaces, testing, verification, data analysis, defect resolution, requirements traceability, design reviews, configuration management, risk analysis, and program assurance evidence. The engineer will provide technical leadership through architecture decisions, reviews, mentorship, planning, and multidisciplinary coordination, and support prototype and production integration and scheduled test events. The position is based at Flightwave in Torrance, California. Work takes place with prototype and production hardware in laboratory, engineering, manufacturing, and flight-test environments. Travel to integration and flight-test sites is expected to be 10% or less. Scheduled test events or issue-response activities may occur outside standard hours when necessary; specific expectations are defined before hire. A post-offer background check is required. The position requires access to ITAR/EAR-controlled technology, so candidates must provide proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residence and must not require sponsorship for export-restricted work authorization.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Seven or more years of professional software development, including recent hands-on embedded development for aircraft, VTOL/UAS, autonomous vehicles, embedded systems, robotics, or comparable vehicle platforms.
Advanced embedded C and modern C++ proficiency, including object lifetime, ownership, concurrency, integer behavior, memory layout, performance, and undefined-behavior avoidance.
Production experience developing for both microcontrollers and application processors, such as ARM Cortex-M and Cortex-A class devices or comparable architectures.
Experience with an RTOS and embedded Linux, including scheduling, multithreading, IPC, boot flow, device interfaces, and system-level debugging.
Experience with vehicle and board interfaces such as DroneCAN/CAN/CAN FD, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, MavLINK, BDShot, and GPIO, plus related transport or messaging protocols.
Experience integrating sensors or perception data on resource-constrained platforms, accounting for calibration, timing, dropped data, vibration, lighting, latency, and environmental failure modes.
Experience taking software from design and hardware bring-up through bench testing, vehicle integration, and field or flight testing.
Ability to create testable interfaces, automated tests, actionable logs, and measurable performance and reliability criteria.
Ability to explain technical decisions, lead reviews, mentor engineers, and collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams.

Nice To Haves

Direct VTOL, UAS, autopilot, flight-computer, or flight-control ecosystem experience, including PX4 or an equivalent platform.
Aerial-vehicle perception experience in sensor fusion, visual-inertial odometry, SLAM, GNSS-denied navigation, object detection, tracking, or terrain-relative localization.
Embedded computer-vision or machine-learning optimization using OpenCV, Eigen, CUDA, TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, or comparable technologies.
Hands-on NXP, Qualcomm, or NVIDIA processor development, including board-support packages, acceleration frameworks, profiling tools, and development kits.
Yocto Project, OpenEmbedded, Buildroot, custom Linux distributions, bootloaders, kernel configuration, or device-driver experience.
Qt and QML development for operator-facing or engineering applications.
Docker-based development or deployment workflows and cross-compilation for target hardware.
Conan for C/C++ dependency management and JFrog Artifactory for binary artifacts.
Python and GitLab CI/CD or comparable automated tooling for test, data analysis, builds, packaging, static analysis, and release.
Familiarity with DO-178C, ARP4754A, DO-254 interfaces, MISRA C/C++, requirements-based testing, structural coverage, or similar safety-related methods.
Secure boot, signed updates, trusted execution, platform hardening, or connected embedded-system cybersecurity experience.
Agentic development tools or workflows for coding, testing, documentation, or log analysis, with security, traceability, review, and human accountability.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, review, and maintain embedded C and C++ software for microcontrollers, application processors, and heterogeneous aircraft edge-compute platforms.
Own features from requirements and architecture through implementation, integration, verification, release, and ground or flight-test support.
Develop board-support, device-interface, middleware, and application-layer software for real-time operating systems and embedded Linux.
Integrate cameras, EO/IR payloads, IMUs, GNSS, radar, lidar, and other sensors, including reliable data paths, time synchronization, health monitoring, and fault handling.
Develop or integrate perception capabilities such as detection, tracking, localization, visual odometry, mapping, calibration, and multi-sensor fusion as programs require.
Optimize CPU, GPU, memory, I/O, startup, latency, throughput, and power while preserving deterministic behavior on critical paths.
Define secure, stable interfaces among perception, autonomy, flight controls, vehicle management, communications, payloads, and operator applications.
Diagnose cross-domain problems using target debuggers, traces, logic analyzers, telemetry, recorded sensor data, core dumps, and system logs.
Build and maintain unit, integration, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, regression, and performance tests.
Analyze ground and flight data, drive defects to root cause, and establish measurable timing, memory, reliability, and functional acceptance criteria.
Contribute to requirements traceability, design reviews, coding standards, configuration management, risk analysis, and program assurance evidence.
Provide technical leadership through architecture decisions, code reviews, mentorship, planning, and multidisciplinary coordination.
Deliver maintainable production software on target hardware with actionable logs, testable interfaces, and automated regression coverage.
Support prototype and production integration, scheduled test events, and other duties aligned with the role as assigned.