Senior Staff Application Technology Architect – Drone & UAV Applications

Renesas Electronics•Austin, TX

11d

About The Position

Renesas is seeking an experienced System Architect to serve as its global technical leader for Drone and UAV applications. The role defines and drives end-to-end system architectures for next-generation UAV platforms, identifies market opportunities, shapes solution roadmaps, and promotes differentiated semiconductor and software solutions. It serves as a technical authority connecting customer requirements, ecosystem needs, aviation regulations, and semiconductor product engineering. The architect guides solution strategy, ecosystem engagement, reference-platform development, and semiconductor adoption across industrial, commercial, and defense UAV markets. The position works across product and engineering teams, engages with customers and ecosystem partners, supports product and technology roadmaps, and contributes reusable architectures and solution building blocks throughout the development lifecycle.

Requirements

Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering, or a related field.
At least 8 years of experience in drone, UAV, aerospace, robotics, autonomous-system, or embedded-system development, with significant responsibility for system architecture and integration.
Experience as a systems engineer in the development of industrial and/or defense drone platforms.
A proven track record as a System Architect, Chief Engineer, or Technical Lead.
Hands-on experience contributing to at least one UAV platform through architecture, development, system integration, verification, flight testing, and product deployment.
Deep understanding of UAV architectures, including flight controllers, mission computers, avionics, propulsion, power systems, payloads, communication links, and ground-control systems.
Strong knowledge of embedded systems, MCUs, MPUs/SoCs, real-time software, embedded Linux, RTOS platforms, and heterogeneous computing architectures.
Strong experience in flight control, estimation, sensor fusion, navigation, GNSS/RTK, perception, autonomy, or other safety- and mission-critical UAV functions.

Nice To Haves

Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, ROS 2, MAVLink, DDS, or comparable UAV and robotics software frameworks.
Familiarity with aviation development and safety practices, EASA or FAA UAV regulations, Remote ID, BVLOS operations, and standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A, or ARP4761.
Experience with edge AI, computer vision, SLAM, visual-inertial odometry, radar or LiDAR perception, and AI accelerator platforms.
Background in electric propulsion, motor control, battery management, power conversion, or high-efficiency power electronics for aerial systems.
Experience with cybersecurity, secure communications, GNSS resilience, anti-jamming, or system-level threat analysis.
Knowledge of simulation, model-based systems engineering, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and digital-twin environments.
Experience supporting third-party assessments, flight approvals, certification, or regulatory compliance activities.

Responsibilities

Define and own end-to-end system architectures for industrial and/or defense drone and UAV applications, including flight control, mission computing, sensing, propulsion, power, connectivity, and ground-control interfaces.
Translate customer use cases and mission requirements into system, hardware, software, performance, safety, security, and interface requirements.
Drive hardware/software partitioning across MCUs, MPUs/SoCs, AI accelerators, programmable logic, sensors, connectivity devices, power electronics, and actuators.
Define architectures for flight control, sensor fusion, navigation, positioning, stabilization, autonomous mission execution, obstacle detection, and collision avoidance.
Specify and integrate sensing solutions such as IMUs, GNSS/RTK, cameras, radar, LiDAR, ultrasonic, barometric, and environmental sensors.
Define compute architectures for edge AI, computer vision, visual-inertial odometry, SLAM, object detection, tracking, and autonomous decision-making.
Develop communication architectures for command and control, telemetry, payload data, remote identification, vehicle-to-vehicle links, cloud connectivity, and ground-control systems.
Define power and propulsion architectures, including battery management, power conversion and distribution, motor control, energy optimization, thermal management, and fault monitoring.
Ensure safety, reliability, cybersecurity, redundancy, fault containment, degraded-operation modes, and fail-safe behaviors are incorporated into system architecture.
Collaborate with Product Groups and system, hardware, software, AI, connectivity, power, motor-control, security, and validation teams to deliver semiconductor-based solutions.
Support product definition and roadmaps by identifying UAV system requirements, technology gaps, architectural trade-offs, and opportunities for differentiated semiconductor and software solutions.
Guide and review system design, implementation, integration, verification, validation, and flight-test activities throughout the development lifecycle.
Engage with drone OEMs, technology partners, research institutes, and ecosystem providers to understand requirements, discuss architectures, and accelerate design-in activities.
Support customer engagements by explaining system concepts, design choices, performance trade-offs, integration guidelines, and reference-solution capabilities.
Monitor market trends, regulations, emerging technologies, and competitive solutions, and translate insights into application strategies and architectures.
Translate evolving UAV market requirements into strategic semiconductor investment opportunities and influence product and technology roadmaps.
Contribute to reference architectures, evaluation platforms, proofs of concept, application notes, and reusable solution building blocks for multiple UAV platforms.
Provide technical mentoring, design reviews, and domain guidance to internal engineering, application, field, and product teams.