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Salary: USD 175,000 - 220,000 / annual
Firestorm is building expeditionary defense manufacturing and autonomous systems, including modular unmanned aircraft and deployable microfactories (xCell). The company addresses a critical defense need: making mission-critical systems rapidly deployable, adaptable, and producible at the point of need.
Crucible is Firestorm's software platform that orchestrates this manufacturing network—running in cloud environments, inside factories, and in air-gapped classified settings. This role focuses on the systems layer powering Crucible's edge deployments.
As Systems Software Engineer, you will own the Linux environment and deployment infrastructure for edge factories and forward-deployed manufacturing sites. Your responsibilities include:
• Design and build Crucible's edge platform runtime and infrastructure for factories, xCells, and air-gapped environments
• Define Linux system configuration, provisioning, networking, security, updates, and recovery procedures
• Build interfaces connecting Crucible to factory floor equipment: machines, workstations, printers, scanners, test equipment
• Engineer reliable edge systems that operate through network loss, degraded connectivity, restarts, and recovery scenarios
• Own device lifecycle tooling: provisioning, configuration, software updates, diagnostics, and fleet management
• Debug full-stack problems across applications, Linux kernel, networking, peripherals, and physical hardware
• Partner with software leadership on edge-to-cloud interfaces, deployment topology, security boundaries, and system architecture
Required: 8+ years building systems, platform, infrastructure, or embedded Linux software; deep Linux expertise (processes, networking, filesystems, service management, debugging); strong systems programming language proficiency; experience building/operating software on physical or edge compute; solid networking fundamentals; provisioning/configuration management experience; hardware/peripheral integration experience; ability to debug across software, OS, network, and hardware layers. U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain/maintain a security clearance required.
Preferred: Rust, C++, Go, or Python; containers and edge orchestration; air-gapped or intermittently connected systems; Linux image creation, boot processes, systemd, kernel configuration, or device drivers; industrial protocols (OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus, serial, CAN); industrial equipment integration; secure boot, device identity, disk encryption, Linux hardening; aerospace, defense, robotics, industrial automation, or manufacturing background.
