System Architect

Firestorm • San Diego, CA

10h • Onsite

About The Position

Firestorm is building the next generation of uncrewed aircraft and the advanced manufacturing systems that deliver them at speed. The Software Integration & Operations department owns the software layer that spans factory floor to cloud — the applications, automation, edge systems, and intelligence that make it possible to iterate product designs, automate advanced manufacturing, and scale production with uncompromising quality and rigor. As a System Architect, you own the end-to-end software system architecture that turns a product design into a manufactured aircraft. Your scope is not a single service or module — it is the integrated system: the digitized product definition, the manufacturing software platform, the factory floor automation layer, the intelligence and optimization modules, and the data contracts that tie them together. You define how product information flows from engineering release, through NPI, into manufacturing execution, and back as operational feedback — and you make sure the software systems supporting that flow form a coherent whole rather than a stack of disconnected tools. This is a software systems architect role, not a classical systems engineering role. You are expected to write code, read code, and go deep into the software — data models, API contracts, service boundaries, optimization formulations, edge-to-cloud protocols — wherever the architectural question requires depth. This role requires deep technical expertise and delivery focused leadership, you will be essential in building Firestorm’s advanced manufacturing platform, aircraft software, and factory automation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations
• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a substantial portion of that time spent architecting, implementing, and shipping integrated software systems
• Demonstrated track record of success as a hands-on architect, with software solutions delivered in the past
• Deep software breadth — you are fluent across application, data, distributed systems, and integration concerns, and you can go deep on any of them when required.
• Strong applied math or algorithmic literacy — you can partner with an optimization engineer on problem formulation and reason about the math, not just the code around it.
• Exceptional written communication. The reference architecture document is your primary artifact, and engineers should actually use it.
• Demonstrated ability to influence across engineering without formal authority: design reviews, technical decisions, and cross-team alignment.
• Demonstrated history of holding yourself and your teammates to a high standard, even when it creates discomfort.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience architecting software systems for manufacturing, aerospace, defense, industrial IoT, or other hardware-connected domains.
• Hands-on experience with scheduling, planning, or resource allocation optimization — MILP, constraint programming, or heuristic approaches.
• Familiarity with MES, PLM, ERP, or similar enterprise manufacturing systems and their integration patterns.
• Experience designing systems for regulated deployment environments (FedRAMP, ITAR, air-gapped DoD).

Responsibilities

• Own the reference architecture for the manufacturing software system end-to-end: product definition, platform, edge, automation, intelligence modules, and the integration contracts between them.
• Define and evolve the canonical domain model — how product definitions, work orders, engineering changes, effectivity, and operational feedback are represented across the system.
• Author the system-level design documents that engineers build against — reference architectures, canonical data models, API contracts, integration specifications.
• Serve as technical authority on cross-program architectural questions: how the system absorbs a new product program, a new manufacturing cell, a new module, or a new deployment topology without accumulating fragmentation.
• Write production code where it matters — proof-of-concept implementations that prove a design works, critical path contributions when the architecture is load-bearing, and reviews that hold the line on system coherence.
• Partner closely with the Principal Engineer on how architecture lands in engineering execution, and with the department head on how architecture informs roadmap and strategy.
• Partner with Applied AI engineers to devise optimization models, and with Full Stack engineers to redesign data schemas.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plans
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
• Equity grants for new hires
• Unlimited PTO
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in November, & December.
• Generous Parental Leave
• Lifestyle Spending Account
• FSA
• DCFSA
• HSA
• Hospital Indemnity insurance
• Critical Illness insurance
• Accident insurance
• Basic Life/AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance, 100% covered by Firestorm.
• Option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your family.
• Mental Health Resources: free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more.
• Additional work-life services, such as free legal and financial support.

What This Job Offers

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