Middle / Senior Embedded Software Engineer (Linux, Raspberry Pi)
First seen by Alion on Oct 19, 2026.
DroneOps specialises in advanced navigational systems for UAV operations. Our focus is on developing robust solutions that enhance UAV autonomy and reliability, facilitating operations in environments where traditional GPS may be compromised. Our technology is designed to be integrated across a range of UAV platforms, delivering precision, resilience and cost-effective enhancements to existing hardware.
We are looking for an embedded software engineer to own the platform layer of our onboard computing: the Linux images our navigation software ships on, the provisioning and secure boot chain that protects it in the field, and the tooling that turns a bare Raspberry Pi Compute Module into a flight-ready device. Our team is small and cross-functional. You will work close to the hardware and close to the people writing the algorithms that run on it, with real ownership of the platform from the first week.
MUST HAVE SKILLS
• 3+ years of commercial experience with embedded Linux (for the Senior level; from 2 years for Middle)
• Strong Linux internals: boot flow, initramfs, systemd, journald, udev, device tree and overlays, kernel modules
• Hands-on experience with Raspberry Pi as a production platform, not only as a dev board — Compute Module 4 / 5, EEPROM and bootloader configuration, rpiboot / usbboot
• Building custom OS images: pi-gen, rpi-image-gen, or an equivalent stack (Yocto, Buildroot, debootstrap)
• Secure boot in practice: signed boot images, key management, OTP-fused key hashes, encrypted or verified rootfs (dm-crypt / LUKS, dm-verity)
• Experience with device provisioning pipelines: key injection, per-device identity, factory-side automation
• Flashing and mass-provisioning workflows: reproducible builds, image verification, recovery from a bricked device
• Confident CLI, bash and Python scripting for build and provisioning automation
• Cross-compilation and toolchain fundamentals (ARM64)
• Git and CI-driven builds (GitHub Actions)
• Reading schematics and datasheets well enough to talk to hardware engineers
• At least Intermediate English (reading docs, written async communication)
NICE TO HAVE SKILLS
• A/B (dual-slot) update schemes and OTA frameworks: RAUC, Mender, SWUpdate
• U-Boot, custom kernel configuration and patching, PREEMPT_RT
• Peripheral bring-up: UART, I2C, SPI, GPIO, CSI cameras, PPS/GNSS receivers
• ArduPilot, PX4, MAVLink or another autopilot stack
• Other SoM platforms: NVIDIA Jetson, i.MX, Rockchip
• Hardware-accelerated video and computer vision pipelines on ARM (V4L2, GStreamer, VPU/GPU offload)
• Information security fundamentals: PKI, HSM or KMS-backed signing, secrets handling, threat modelling for physically accessible devices
• Self-hosted GitHub Actions runners for image build pipelines
• Docker for reproducible build environments
• Power management and thermal constraints on airborne platforms
• Experience with restricted or air-gapped development environments
YOUR TASKS MAY INCLUDE
• Designing and maintaining the Raspberry Pi OS images our navigation software runs on — minimal, reproducible, versioned
• Building and operating the secure boot and provisioning chain: signing keys, OTP key programming, encrypted rootfs, factory provisioning stations
• Automating image build, signing and flashing in CI, so a release is an artifact rather than a manual procedure
• Bringing up new hardware revisions and peripherals together with the hardware team
• Implementing and testing a safe field update mechanism, including rollback
• Debugging boot, driver and performance issues on real devices — serial console, ftrace, perf, kernel logs
• Hardening the platform: attack surface reduction, secrets storage, protecting IP on a device that can be physically captured
• Writing the technical documentation and runbooks for the platform you own
WHAT WE OFFER
• Competitive salary
• Reservation from mobilization
• Office in Kyiv with shelter access, generator and Starlink
• Possibility of hybrid work format
• Impact on improving our country's defense capabilities
• 21 days of vacation + public holidays, sick leaves