Software Engineer - Autonomy & Ground Systems

Valinor Enterprises, Inc.•New York, NY

11d

About The Position

Valinor Condor is building the next generation of autonomous VTOL aircraft for defense and enterprise applications. This is a fast-paced role within a small, technical team where the vehicle is already flying and customers are real. The work spans simulation to real-life applications. The Software Engineer will be responsible for all aspects of the system above the flight controller, including the ground control stack, companion computer software, mission planning tools, simulation infrastructure, and internal tooling for flight test program organization.

Requirements

4+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time spent on hardware-coupled systems.
Proficiency in C++ and Python.
Experience with ROS or ROS2 in a deployed context.
Comfortable working in Linux environments (systemd, networking, process management, debugging without a GUI).
Strong written communication skills to translate between domain experts and software development.
Eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Experience with MAVLink, PX4, or ArduPilot.
Familiarity with SITL/HITL simulation environments.
Experience with data pipeline tooling (ingestion, storage, querying of time-series or log data).
Background in or exposure to defense, aerospace, or other safety-critical software domains.
Experience with TAK, CoT, or military C2 integration.
Knowledge of MAVLink security, encrypted RF links, or NDAA software compliance.
CI/CD experience in a hardware-in-the-loop context.
Active U.S. security clearance.

Responsibilities

Own ROS2 nodes, sensor and payload pipelines, MAVLink integration, and health monitoring/watchdog logic for the On-Board Computer Stack.
Own GCS software, MAVLink routing infrastructure, TAK/CoT integration, and end-to-end mission planning tooling for Ground Control & Mission Planning.
Build and maintain the SITL harness and interface layer between the flight dynamics model and autopilot, and develop scripted HITL test suites for software validation.
Build the flight data pipeline (log ingestion, storage, indexing, retrieval), analysis dashboards, and automated anomaly detection for Flight Operations Tooling.
Own CI/CD for firmware builds and software releases, enabling rapid integration with clear documentation for Engineering Infrastructure.
Collaborate with engineering and product teams to translate requirements into working software.