Senior Software Engineer, Autonomous Systems

ABOUT THE ROLE

Join a customer-facing product engineering team building command-and-control and autonomous systems software for operational and tactical missions. You will develop cloud and edge services that connect sensors, autonomous platforms, and AI-enabled decision-making in high-stakes environments.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Design, implement, and optimize software for mission-critical autonomous systems.
• Build backend services and real-time messaging integrations connecting external systems and platforms.
• Develop software that processes data from diverse sensors for real-time state estimation and threat detection.
• Build LLM- and AI-enabled systems that assess threats and support timely responses.
• Integrate sensors, effectors, and autonomous platforms, including individual systems and swarms.
• Engineer scalable, reliable, and fail-safe systems, partnering with robotics, hardware, sensing, and systems engineering teams.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Four to ten years of hands-on backend or service-layer software engineering experience, with a track record of owning core services such as APIs, microservices, or middleware.
• Strong proficiency in Rust, Python, C++, or Java, and a technical degree in computer science, robotics, electrical engineering, or a related field.
• Experience building real-time data and messaging integrations between live external services.
• Background in autonomy, such as autonomous vehicles, drones, robotics, or factory automation, and experience shipping software in a fast prototype-to-field environment.
• Hands-on engineering experience beyond algorithm development, simulation, or ML research; experience with LLM systems, AI agents, or toolchains is a plus.
• US work authorization without sponsorship and eligibility to obtain a security clearance.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Base salary range: $145,000 to $275,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

LOCATION

Hybrid in Palo Alto, California.