{"id":2002944,"url":"https://alion.io/job/lead-software-engineer","title":"Lead Software Engineer","company":{"id":191,"name":"Technology Innovation Institute","domain":"tii.ae","url":"https://alion.io/company/technology-innovation-institute","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Phenom","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United Arab Emirates"],"countries":["AE"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Human-in-the-Loop","optional":false},{"name":"ISO 27001","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"MAVLink","optional":false},{"name":"NATS","optional":false},{"name":"PX4 Autopilot","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"ROS2","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"SLAM","optional":false},{"name":"Threat Modeling","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-16T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-16","last_verified_at":"2026-10-15T22:09:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":30,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":30},"description":"Technology Innovation Institute (TII) is a publicly funded research institute, based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is home to a diverse community of leading scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and researchers from across the globe, transforming problems and roadblocks into pioneering research and technology prototypes that help move society ahead.\nRole Overview\nAs an experienced Lead Engineer with expertise in flight control systems and companion compute platforms, your leading role will be in designing, implementing, and maintaining software solutions across NXP-based PX4 flight controllers and Nvidia-based and Qualcomm-based mission computers. You will optimize solutions for reliability, safety, and performance in complex UAV operations. \nThis position requires a deep understanding of real-time embedded systems, proficiency in PX4 autopilot software, and the ability to integrate high-performance applications on NVIDIA& Qualcomm IQ9 platforms. As a leader in our UAV development projects, you will play a key role in shaping our autonomy stack, ensuring scalability, safety, and secure communication across the system. \nLead engineer will take ownership in developing SW features and productization of the TII Secure Software Platform for large-scale defense UxV (Unmanned Vehicle) mission computer applications.\nFunctional Activities\nAutonomy Software Development:\nIntegrate robotics applications on NVIDIA & Qualcomm IQ9 platforms for perception, planning, and navigation.\n\nDevelop and integrate ROS2-based nodes and middleware to support modular autonomy stacks.\n\nOptimize GPU-based AI/ML workloads for real-time inference, sensor fusion, and decision-making.\n\nSystem Integration and Middleware:\nExperience implementing secure application-level network protocols (NATS, ACL, DDS, etc.) between robotic platforms and Ground Control Station\napplications, including message exchange, authentication, encryption, telemetry, command/control flows, and secure communication handling.\n\nDevelop tools and APIs for efficient data exchange across mission-critical components.\n\nSupport multi-sensor integration (camera, LiDAR, GNSS, IMU) with ROS2 middleware.\n\nHas basic understanding on Flight Controller devices and PX4-based flight-control platforms, including real-time operation, MAVLink/UDP communication, telemetry, command/control flows, parameter management, sensor/peripheral interfaces, and integration with NVIDIA-based Mission Computer software.\n\nAbility to work with Flight Controller hardware, FPGA, security, and systems teams to validate end-to-end integration across Mission Computer, Flight Controller, Ground Control Station, and unmanned vehicle platforms.\n\nSecurity and Reliability:\nDesign and enforce cybersecurity measures for UAV autonomy software (secure boot, encrypted comms, sandboxing).\n\nImplement identity management and access control for mission software deployments.\n\nConduct threat modeling, vulnerability assessments, and apply secure coding practices.\n\nEnsure compliance with aerospace cybersecurity frameworks (ISO 27001, DO-326A).\n\nAutomation and DevOps:\nBuild CI/CD pipelines for deployment of ROS2 and AI workloads on NVIDIA Jetson and Qualcomm IQ9.\n\nUse containerization (Docker) and orchestration tools for reproducible autonomous flight stacks.\n\nApply understanding of MATLAB and related engineering tools for automation, test scripting, data analysis, model-based workflows, validation support, and manufacturing procedure automation.\n\nEngineering Process Optimization:\nImplement telemetry, logging, and diagnostics for real-time system monitoring.\n\nContinuously optimize software for GPU utilization, latency reduction, and energy efficiency.\n\nDefine and enforce best practices in software development lifecycle (SDLC) for autonomy stack.\n\nStandardize coding guidelines, documentation, and review processes to ensure maintainability and quality.\n\nDefine KPIs (e.g., deployment cycle time, test coverage, system uptime, security incidents) to track engineering efficiency.\n\nEncourage reuse of components and frameworks across projects to reduce duplication.\n\nOrganize regular code reviews, technical retrospectives, and knowledge-sharing sessions.\n\nSprint planning, backlog grooming, and daily stand-ups.\n\nAutomated testing, HITL/SITL, code review, and release management.\n\nMetrics tracking, velocity, and continuous improvement of the engineering process.\nIndustry / Domain\nDefense Autonomous Systems / Secure Mission Computing / Unmanned Vehicles (UxV)\nNecessary Knowledge and Experience\n10+ years of experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or safety-critical UxV platform development, preferably in defense or aerospace environments.\n\nProficiency in real-time embedded systems and Python for automation, AI/ML workflows, testing, and data pipelines.\n\nStrong experience with ROS2, XRCE-DDS, MAVLink, and modular autonomy stack architecture on NVIDIA Jetson and Qualcomm-based mission computer platforms.\n\nHands-on experience with Qualcomm SoC platform bring-up, including BSP integration, Linux/Yocto environments, boot chain validation, peripheral enablement, driver integration, and platform debugging.\n\nUnderstanding of Qualcomm security features, including secure boot, hardware root of trust, TEE, key provisioning, encrypted storage, anti-rollback, secure debug control, and lifecycle-state enforcement.\n\nExperience with production security workflows, including fuse burning, root-of-trust provisioning, device identity, factory flashing, secure provisioning, and manufacturing test procedures.\n\nHands-on experience with GPU, DSP, NPU, or AI accelerator-based workloads for sensor fusion, real-time inference, and SWaP-constrained AI/ML deployment.\n\nExperience implementing embedded cybersecurity measures, including encrypted communications, sandboxing, access control, threat modeling, secure OTA, and secure coding practices.\n\nFamiliarity with ISO 27001, DO-326A, DevOps/CI/CD, Git, Docker, Kubernetes, automated testing, and cross-functional integration.\n\nStrong English communication skills and ability to work with software, hardware, security, manufacturing, QA, and systems teams under pressure.\n\nEducation and Certification Requirements\nExperience in UAV or aerospace autonomy projects.\n\nContributions to the ROS2 or NVIDIA Jetson open-source community.\n\nKnowledge of ML, SLAM, or multi-agent coordination.\n\nFamiliarity with standards (ISO 27001, DO-178C, DO-326A, IEC 61508).\n\nProven track record of bringing autonomous systems from concept to product, including field deployment and user adoption.\n\nAt TII, we help society to overcome its biggest hurdles through a rigorous approach to scientific discovery and inquiry, using state-of-the-art facilities and collaboration with leading international institutions. Our rigorous discovery and inquiry-based approach helps to forge new and disruptive breakthroughs in advanced materials, autonomous robotics, cryptography, digital security, directed energy, quantum computing and secure systems.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7028,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"Upper-Intermediate (B2)","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Arab Emirates","iso":"AE","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Information Security","Foundation Models","AI Research Labs","Research Institutes"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-07T12:19:59Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":60,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.805,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":29,"expected_fill_days":36,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:late"],"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/lead-software-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/lead-software-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-16T00:25:26Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":783,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-17T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":191},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=191"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Flead-software-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Flead-software-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Flead-software-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/lead-software-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Flead-software-engineer"}]}