SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Applied Intuition is seeking a Software Engineer to join the Drone Stack team, architecting and deploying advanced autonomy and vehicle intelligence systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). You will bring autonomy stacks to life on real vehicle platforms, standing up integrations, running software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) evaluations, and supporting live flight testing in the field.
Key responsibilities include building and tailoring modular autonomy capabilities for defense missions on embedded Linux platforms, interfacing with onboard sensors and capturing data. You'll work closely with autonomy engineers to integrate autonomy software with vehicle hardware, achieving full integration with aircraft autopilots, datalinks, sensor payloads, PNT/GPS/INS systems, and ground control stations. You'll design service-oriented-architecture software and inter-process messaging frameworks for autonomous UAS platforms.
You will perform system-level bring-up, test, and validation across SIL and HIL evaluation environments, and participate in live flight testing on Group 1–5 unmanned aerial vehicles. Responsibilities include diagnosing and resolving challenging software and integration problems to maintain system performance and reliability, and engaging directly with DoD warfighter domain experts and third-party UAS vendors to deploy Applied's autonomy software onto OEM aircraft hardware.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Robotics, Computer Science, or related engineering discipline, plus at least 3 years of hands-on robotics experience spanning hardware, software, and systems integration. Proficiency in modern C++ is required, with development experience in Docker, containerized deployments, and Linux distributions (Ubuntu or RHEL). You must have hands-on integration experience with Pixhawk-family autopilots (ArduPilot and/or PX4), and working knowledge of communication buses and protocols (UART/RS232/RS422/RS485, SPI/QSPI, I2C, Ethernet). Experience with real-time, edge, and safety-critical computing in SIL, HIL, test, and operational settings is essential. U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and hold a U.S. security clearance are required. Ability to travel 10–20% for on-site integrations and demos.
Nice-to-have skills include modern C++ standards (C++11/17/20), Bash, CMake, FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, Agile workflows, CI/CD pipelines, COTS compute hardware experience (NVIDIA Jetson, Raspberry Pi), and an active U.S. SECRET clearance.
