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Salary: USD 160,000 - 240,000 / annual
CHAOS Industries is a defense technology company founded in 2022 and backed by $1B in funding from top-tier investors including 8VC, Accel, and NEA. The company develops advanced sensing and detection solutions powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™) for warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams.
You will join the R&D team as a Senior Guidance Software Engineer, leading the design of guidance software for a clean-sheet airframe design. This is a hands-on technical role where you will take ownership of critical flight control systems while collaborating with a small, experienced team of military veterans and Silicon Valley engineers.
Key responsibilities include:
- Implementing guidance and navigation software within commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software frameworks
- Supporting airframe design activities and system integration of software on flight hardware
- Working full-time on-site at the Los Angeles (Hawthorne) office
- Collaborating across product families to expand technical expertise
This role requires deep expertise in embedded systems, real-time software, and autonomous vehicle guidance. You will work with microcontroller architectures (STM32), Linux-hosted systems (Nvidia Jetson, AMD/Xilinx SoCs), and commercial autopilot frameworks like ArduPilot. The ideal candidate has shipped production systems and understands the full lifecycle from hardware integration to deployment.
CHAOS offers competitive compensation including base salary, generous pre-IPO stock options, relocation assistance, comprehensive health benefits (medical, dental, vision 100% company-paid), 401k with 50% match, unlimited PTO, and free daily lunch.
**Requirements:**
- Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field
- 10+ years of professional object-oriented software development
- Experience designing and implementing guidance algorithms for UAS platforms using commercial autopilot frameworks (ArduPilot)
- Practical understanding of fixed-wing and rotary-wing flight dynamics
- Extensive experience with microcontroller development (STM32 or similar) and Linux on embedded platforms (Nvidia Jetson, AMD/Xilinx SoCs, Microblaze)
- Real-time embedded software development experience including hardware interfaces
- Experience integrating vendor-provided low-level drivers and firmware
- Proficiency with Agile methodologies (Scrum, CI/CD, Test-Driven Development)
- Ability to work independently and collaborate on small teams
- U.S. Person status required (access to U.S.-only data systems)
**Preferred Qualifications:**
- Current or previous DoD security clearance
- FAA Part 107 remote pilot certification
- EO/IR and radar sensor integration experience
- VHDL firmware development and AMD/Xilinx FPGA experience
- Git version control proficiency
- Production-level software development with DevOps/DevSecOps and CI/CD pipelines
- Full lifecycle development of high-TRL (Technology Readiness Level) systems
- Hardware/software integration and verification/validation experience
