Software Engineer, Industrial Controls

Aalo Atomics•Austin, TX

24d•Onsite

About The Position

Aalo is hiring a hands-on Software Engineer, Industrial Controls to lead the architecture and implementation of a software-defined industrial controls runtime for energy and industrial process systems. The runtime will execute industrial process-control workloads on standard PC hardware in a real-time or real-time-oriented environment, bringing modern software flexibility to domains traditionally served by PLCs while preserving predictability, recoverability, and operational discipline. The engineer will own the stack from I/O drivers through runtime execution and external control and data interfaces. The role combines systems software, runtime design, operating-system-adjacent engineering, industrial communications, high-availability architecture, implementation, diagnostics, testing, and technical leadership. The engineer will collaborate with controls, systems, hardware, test, manufacturing, operations, and software teams to translate process-control needs into runtime architecture and software behavior. The platform is being defined from the ground up. Near-term work includes runtime execution, I/O drivers, deterministic scheduling, redundancy, diagnostics, proof-of-concept development, and prototype validation. The longer-term goal is a software foundation for controlling, observing, testing, and evolving industrial energy systems, supporting non-safety-related controls, integration, simulation, testing, telemetry, and future plant operations. The position is based in the United States and requires working on-site in Austin, Texas, with travel as needed for collaboration, integration, testing, and installation support. Applicants must be U.S. Citizens or U.S. Persons in compliance with 10 CFR Part 810 and may not hold non-compliant foreign citizenships.

Requirements

10 or more years of professional software engineering experience, including deep ownership of systems software, embedded software, runtime systems, industrial automation, control systems, real-time systems, high-availability infrastructure, or similarly high-reliability software.
5 or more years designing, implementing, or operating software where timing behavior, fault handling, hardware interfaces, redundancy, recoverability, or deterministic behavior materially mattered.
Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering, controls engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Deep experience in systems software, runtime systems, embedded software, operating-system-adjacent engineering, or industrial automation.
Understanding of deterministic execution, concurrency, scheduling, memory behavior, and fault handling in high-reliability systems.
Experience designing or implementing software that interfaces with hardware, field devices, industrial protocols, or control systems.
Ability to design systems with clear execution models, interfaces, service boundaries, failure modes, and test strategies.
Ability to write clear, maintainable systems software and reason carefully about correctness, reliability, timing behavior, and operational risk.
Ability to turn ambiguous architecture needs into working systems, move quickly on prototypes, and address integration issues, edge cases, testing gaps, and operational problems.
Ability to lead technically while remaining hands-on.
Comfort using modern software tools, automation, and AI-assisted development workflows, and evaluating generated code, test output, and tool suggestions.
Ability to collaborate and communicate clearly across software, controls, hardware, and operational needs.
Based in the United States.
Willing to work on-site in Austin, Texas.
Willing to travel as needed for team collaboration, integration, testing, and installation support.
Applicants must be U.S. Citizens or U.S. Persons in compliance with 10 CFR Part 810 and may not hold non-compliant foreign citizenships.

Nice To Haves

Experience in industrial automation, embedded systems, kernel or runtime systems, power systems, robotics, aerospace or flight software, automotive controls, nuclear-adjacent controls, or another high-reliability physical-world domain.
Experience building real-time or real-time-oriented software platforms.
Familiarity with PLC-based systems, industrial controllers, or control-runtime replacement architectures.
Experience with hot/standby failover, state replication, watchdog and heartbeat systems, and health monitoring.
Experience with Ethernet/IP, Modbus, EtherCAT, or MQTT.
Experience bringing up software on RTOS or embedded Linux-like environments.
Experience with simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, fault injection, or control-system validation.
Experience building early-stage technical teams and mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

Architect and implement a robust industrial controls runtime for standard PC hardware in a real-time or real-time-oriented environment.
Define the execution model for deterministic control software, including scheduling, timing behavior, state handling, and fault containment.
Design and build industrial I/O connectivity layers, custom drivers for PLC I/O modules, and support for industrial protocols.
Lead the design of high-availability architectures, including hot/standby redundancy and bumpless failover.
Develop approaches for mirrored or replicated runtime state to support continuity across redundant hardware.
Establish memory management strategies that prioritize deterministic behavior, bounded risk, long-term stability, and operational robustness.
Define runtime interfaces for outbound telemetry, inbound control, diagnostics, configuration, and operator-facing systems while avoiding unnecessary coupling.
Partner with controls engineers to translate process-control requirements into runtime architecture and software behavior.
Define system configuration approaches for I/O mapping, deployment, failover behavior, and diagnostics exposure.
Build early proof-of-concept systems iteratively, including a working runtime prototype with a minimum viable set of I/O drivers.
Establish engineering standards for testability, observability, fault detection, debugging, and software quality.
Collaborate across controls, systems, hardware, test, manufacturing, operations, and software teams.
Mentor engineers and help establish engineering standards as the platform matures.