Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5193)

In this role, you will own the technical direction for the Expeditionary portfolio, driving the evolution of autonomy architecture across V-BAT and X-BAT platforms. You will define long-term technical strategy, solve complex integration challenges, and influence autonomy software spanning mission behaviors, platform interfaces, payload integration, and multi-agent operations. You will partner closely with aircraft, autonomy, perception, and customer teams to ensure reliable, mission-ready solutions for defense customers.

Responsibilities

• Technical Strategy & Portfolio Leadership – Define and drive the long-term technical direction for Expeditionary autonomy across V-BAT, X-BAT, and future platforms.
• Develop & Field Autonomy – Guide development of mission autonomy, payload integration, flight-autonomy interfaces, executive autonomy, and multi-agent capabilities while ensuring successful operational deployment.
• Aircraft Team Partnership – Establish long-term technical strategy with the Aircraft team for platform integration, interface evolution, and mission readiness.
• Cross-Engineering Leadership – Influence architecture across the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), Aircraft, and customer organizations.
• Subject Matter Expertise – Serve as the organization's technical expert for complex autonomy integration challenges spanning software, hardware, and operations.
• Design & Engineering Excellence – Lead architecture reviews, engineering standards, interface definitions, and organization-wide technical improvements.
• Mentorship & Organizational Growth – Mentor senior engineers, develop technical leaders, contribute to leveling frameworks, and partner on senior hiring.
• Mission Readiness & Operational Excellence – Guide customer releases, deployment strategy, and mission validation while supporting critical operational events.
• Continuous Improvement – Drive long-term improvements to engineering processes, integration workflows, testing infrastructure, and developer experience.
• C2 Interoperability & Open Systems – Define technical strategy for command-and-control interoperability and adoption of open-systems standards.
• Hiring & Developing Technical Talent – Define the technical hiring bar for senior engineering roles, partner with engineering managers on long-term staffing strategy, and help grow the organization's technical capabilities.
• Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 10–20% of the year to different office locations, customer sites, operator training events, flight tests, and integration exercises.

Requirements

• BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.
• Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs.
• Proven track record influencing architecture and solving highly complex systems integration challenges.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Nice to have

• Extensive experience with Group 3 UAS, VTOL platforms, or comparable autonomous systems.
• Experience defining flight-autonomy interfaces or custom autopilot integrations.
• Experience deploying autonomy to operational military systems.
• Experience with international defense customers.
• Experience with STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS, and open-systems architectures.
• Experience shaping engineering practices across an organization.

Benefits

• Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
• Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)