Senior Staff Application Technology Architect – Drone & UAV Applications

Renesas Electronics • Morrisville, NC

13d • Onsite

About The Position

Renesas is seeking an experienced Senior Staff Application Technology Architect to serve as its global technical leader for Drone and UAV applications. The position defines and drives end-to-end system architectures for next-generation UAV platforms, identifies emerging 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 role guides solution strategy, ecosystem engagement, reference-platform development, and semiconductor adoption across industrial, commercial, and defense UAV markets. It works across product and engineering teams and engages with drone OEMs, technology partners, research organizations, and ecosystem providers. The architect also contributes to reference architectures, evaluation platforms, proofs of concept, application notes, and reusable solution building blocks, while providing technical mentoring and design reviews.

Renesas describes itself as an embedded semiconductor solution provider with more than 21,000 engineers and problem solvers in over 30 countries. It offers a collaborative international environment and says employees receive competitive compensation and a benefits package, with details provided during hiring. Remote work is not available. The position is regular permanent employment.

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 developing industrial and/or defense drone platforms; the posting cites a proven track record as a System Architect, Chief Engineer, Technical Lead, or Senior [the source wording is incomplete].
• Hands-on contribution 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 sensors, barometric sensors, 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.
• Design safety, reliability, cybersecurity, redundancy, fault containment, degraded-operation modes, and fail-safe behaviors into system architectures.
• Collaborate with Product Groups and system architecture, 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 across 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, evolving regulations, emerging technologies, and competitive solutions, and translate insights into application strategies and architectures.
• Influence product and technology roadmaps by translating evolving UAV market requirements into strategic semiconductor investment opportunities.
• 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.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and a benefits package; further information will be provided during the hiring process.
• Flexible working models are mentioned as an offering, although remote work is not available for this position.
• Long-term career development opportunities.

What This Job Offers

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