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Airbound is building the world's most efficient autonomous delivery aircraft, targeting a dramatic reduction in delivery costs from ₹100/km to 10 paise/km by fundamentally rethinking aerospace engineering and software systems. The company is developing a dual-motor thrust-vectored tailsitter with blended wing body design, achieving industry-leading payload-to-weight ratios and operating at scale across multiple locations.
As an Embedded Software Engineer on the Flight Systems team, you will develop the flight-critical firmware that keeps Airbound's revolutionary aircraft flying safely and efficiently. This is a hands-on role spanning multiple disciplines: you'll design core embedded systems controlling autonomous flight operations, develop high-frequency real-time control loops and sensor fusion algorithms that respond to changing conditions in milliseconds, and build low-level drivers for custom avionics hardware including IMUs, GPS modules, cameras, and motor controllers.
Key responsibilities include:
- Flight-Critical Firmware Development: Design and implement core embedded systems for complex autonomous flight operations on a unique blended wing body aircraft
- Real-Time Control Systems: Develop high-frequency control loops and sensor fusion algorithms under strict timing constraints, implementing advanced flight control logic and state estimation systems
- Hardware Integration & Optimization: Build low-level drivers for custom avionics hardware and optimize code for memory and power efficiency
- Autonomous Navigation Systems: Support development of computer vision pipelines for precision landing, path planning algorithms, and obstacle avoidance for fully autonomous flight
- Communication & Telemetry: Develop robust communication protocols for ground station connectivity, fleet coordination, and real-time telemetry streaming with failsafe mechanisms
This role requires solving problems that span aerospace engineering, real-time systems, and software scalability—problems without textbook solutions. You'll work in-office at Airbound's Bangalore headquarters (Hoskote) with alternate Saturday schedules.
REQUIREMENTS:
Must-Have:
- 3–4 years of embedded/firmware engineering experience, preferably in drone/robotics or complex real-time systems
- Expert-level proficiency in embedded C and modern C++14/17+ for embedded systems
- Strong knowledge of Python 3.8+ for computer vision, scripting, and data analysis
- Low-level MCU firmware expertise: hardware interfaces, device drivers, system programming for I2C/SPI/GPIO/UART/CAN peripherals in bare-metal and RTOS setups
- Proficiency with Embedded Linux (user-space and/or kernel-space modules), multithreading, and multiprocessing
- Knowledge of computer vision libraries (OpenCV) and camera integration
- Hands-on experience with autopilot frameworks (ArduPilot/PX4) and ground control software (Mission Planner, QGroundControl, MAVProxy)
- Strong understanding of control theory including PID controllers and real-time feedback systems
- Experience with SITL/HITL testing and flight simulation environments
- Strong test-driven development and profiling expertise for safety-critical systems
- Mastery of Git workflows and collaborative development practices
- Application of SOLID principles and embedded software best practices
- Excellent documentation and communication skills for cross-functional collaboration
Good-to-Have:
- Experience with state estimation techniques (Kalman filters, least squares) and advanced control algorithms (model predictive control, disturbance rejection control)
- Experience with high-speed communication protocols (MIPI-CSI/DSI, USB cameras with v4l2 stack, Ethernet, SerDes)
- Experience with ROS2/Zenoh for distributed robotics systems and inter-process communication
