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Salary: USD 160,000 - 240,000 / annual
CHAOS Industries, founded in 2022 and backed by $1B in funding from top-tier investors including 8VC, Accel, and NEA, is redefining modern defense with advanced sensing and detection systems. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, and London, and employs 450+ people globally.
You will join the R&D team as a Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Control Software Engineer, leading the design of guidance software for a clean-sheet airframe design. This is a hands-on technical role where you will drive the implementation of sophisticated guidance and navigation algorithms while collaborating with a small, high-performing engineering team.
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 in the Los Angeles (Hawthorne) office
- Collaborating with cross-functional teams to integrate advanced sensing and detection capabilities
CHAOS offers competitive compensation including base salary, generous pre-IPO stock options, relocation assistance, and comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision 100% company-paid, 401k with 50% match up to 6%, FSA, HSA, life insurance). Additional perks include free daily lunch, fully-stocked kitchen, unlimited PTO, and casual dress code.
**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
- Experience designing and implementing guidance algorithms for UAS platforms using commercial autopilot frameworks (e.g., ArduPilot)
- Practical understanding of flight dynamics for fixed-wing and rotary-wing platforms
- Extensive experience developing software on microcontroller architectures (STM32 or similar) and Linux-hosted systems (Nvidia Jetson, AMD/Xilinx SoC, Microblaze)
- Real-time embedded software development experience including hardware interfaces
- Experience integrating vendor-provided low-level drivers and firmware
- Proficiency with Agile lifecycle processes (Scrum, Continuous Integration, Test-Driven Development)
- Ability to work with minimal supervision and collaborate effectively 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 experience
- Production-level software development and deployment (DevOps, DevSecOps, CI/CD with modern FOSS/COTS toolsets)
- Full lifecycle software development of high-TRL systems
- Hardware/software integration, test, and verification of high-TRL systems
