{"id":1523506,"url":"https://alion.io/job/red-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2","title":"Senior Software Engineer","company":{"id":176597,"name":"Red Cat Holdings","domain":"redcat.red","url":"https://alion.io/company/red-cat-holdings","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Paycom","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Torrance, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":126000,"max_usd":231000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":3441},"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Conan","optional":false},{"name":"Cortex","optional":false},{"name":"CUDA","optional":false},{"name":"DO-178C","optional":false},{"name":"DO-254","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"DroneCAN","optional":false},{"name":"Embedded C","optional":false},{"name":"GitLab CI","optional":false},{"name":"JFrog Artifactory","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"MAVLink","optional":false},{"name":"ONNX Runtime","optional":false},{"name":"OpenCV","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Qt","optional":false},{"name":"RTOS","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"SLAM","optional":false},{"name":"TensorRT","optional":false},{"name":"C","optional":true},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-30T13:01:43Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-30","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T05:54:28Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":20,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":20},"description":"Position Summary\n\nFlightWave Aerospace is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to develop embedded software for autonomous aircraft and uncrewed aerial systems. This engineer will own production C and C++ software across microcontrollers and Linux-based application processors, integrate sensors and perception capabilities, and support systems from architecture and hardware bring-up through ground and flight test.\nThe ideal candidate brings recent VTOL, UAS, or other vehicle embedded-software experience; deep expertise in real-time and embedded Linux systems; and the judgment to diagnose issues spanning software, electronics, sensors, networks, and vehicle behavior. The role partners with electrical, systems, controls, autonomy, test, manufacturing, and flight-operations teams.\n\nEssential Duties and Responsibilities\nEssential functions of a job that are crucial to its purpose and must be performed regularly. They are the fundamental tasks that an employee must be able to carry out, with or without reasonable accommodation, and are central to defining the role’s purpose.\n\nDesign, implement, review, and maintain embedded C and C++ software for microcontrollers, application processors, and heterogeneous aircraft edge-compute platforms.\nOwn features from requirements and architecture through implementation, integration, verification, release, and ground or flight-test support.\nDevelop board-support, device-interface, middleware, and application-layer software for real-time operating systems and embedded Linux.\nIntegrate cameras, EO/IR payloads, IMUs, GNSS, radar, lidar, and other sensors with reliable data paths, time synchronization, health monitoring, and fault handling.\nDevelop or integrate perception capabilities including detection, tracking, localization, visual odometry, mapping, calibration, and multi-sensor fusion as programs require.\nOptimize CPU, GPU, memory, I/O, startup, latency, throughput, and power while preserving deterministic behavior on critical paths.\nDefine secure, stable interfaces among perception, autonomy, flight controls, vehicle management, communications, payloads, and operator applications.\nDiagnose cross-domain problems with target debuggers, traces, logic analyzers, telemetry, recorded sensor data, core dumps, and system logs.\nBuild and maintain unit, integration, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, regression, and performance tests.\nAnalyze ground and flight data, drive defects to root cause, and establish measurable timing, memory, reliability, and functional acceptance criteria.\nContribute to requirements traceability, design reviews, coding standards, configuration management, risk analysis, and program assurance evidence.\nProvide technical leadership through architecture decisions, code reviews, mentorship, planning, and multidisciplinary coordination.\nDeliver maintainable production software on target hardware with actionable logs, testable interfaces, and automated regression coverage.\nSupport prototype and production integration, scheduled test events, and other duties aligned with the role as assigned.\n\nRequired Qualifications - The following qualifications are required for any position:\nBachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.\nSeven or more years of professional software development, including recent hands-on embedded development of aircraft, VTOL/UAS, autonomous vehicles, embedded systems, robotics, or comparable vehicle platforms.\nAdvanced embedded C and modern C++ proficiency, including object lifetime, ownership, concurrency, integer behavior, memory layout, performance, and undefined-behavior avoidance.\nProduction experience developing for both microcontrollers and application processors, such as ARM Cortex-M and Cortex-A class devices or comparable architectures.\nExperience with an RTOS and embedded Linux, including scheduling, multithreading, IPC, boot flow, device interfaces, and system-level debugging.\nExperience with vehicle and board interfaces such as DroneCAN/CAN/CAN FD, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, MavLINK, BDShot, and GPIO, plus related transport or messaging protocols.\n\nExperience integrating sensors or perception data on resource-constrained platforms, accounting for calibration, timing, dropped data, vibration, lighting, latency, and environmental failure modes.\nExperience taking software from design and hardware bring-up through bench testing, vehicle integration, and field or flight testing.\nAbility to create testable interfaces, automated tests, actionable logs, and measurable performance and reliability criteria.\nAbility to explain technical decisions, lead reviews, mentor engineers, and collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams.\n\nAdditional Desired Qualifications - The requirements below are desired knowledge, skills and/or abilities we desire but not required.\n\nDirect VTOL, UAS, autopilot, flight-computer, or flight-control ecosystem experience, including PX4 or an equivalent platform.\nAerial-vehicle perception experience in sensor fusion, visual-inertial odometry, SLAM, GNSS-denied navigation, object detection, tracking, or terrain-relative localization.\nEmbedded computer-vision or machine-learning optimization using OpenCV, Eigen, CUDA, TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, or comparable technologies.\nHands-on NXP, Qualcomm, or NVIDIA processor development, including board-support packages, acceleration frameworks, profiling tools, and development kits.\nYocto Project, OpenEmbedded, Buildroot, custom Linux distributions, bootloaders, kernel configuration, or device-driver experience.\nQt and QML development for operator-facing or engineering applications.\nDocker-based development or deployment workflows and cross-compilation for target hardware.\nConan for C/C++ dependency management and JFrog Artifactory for binary artifacts.\nPython and GitLab CI/CD or comparable automated tooling for test, data analysis, builds, packaging, static analysis, and release.\nFamiliarity with DO-178C, ARP4754A, DO-254 interfaces, MISRA C/C++, requirements-based testing, structural coverage, or similar safety-related methods.\nSecure boot, signed updates, trusted execution, platform hardening, or connected embedded-system cybersecurity experience.\nAgentic development tools or workflows for coding, testing, documentation, or log analysis, with security, traceability, review, and human accountability.\n\nPhysical Requirements and Working Conditions - The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee successfully perform the essential functions of this job.\n\nWork with prototype and production hardware in laboratory, engineering, manufacturing, and flight-test environments.\nTravel to integration and flight-test sites as program schedules require; expected travel is 10% or less.\nParticipate in scheduled test events or issue-response activities outside standard hours when necessary; specific expectations are defined before hire.\nComply with applicable safety, security, export-control, information-handling, and facility-access procedures.\n\nBackground Check\nThis position will require successfully completing a post-offer background check. Qualified candidates with a criminal history will be considered and are not automatically disqualified, consistent with federal and state law.\nEEO and ITAR/EAR Work Authorization Disclosure\nRed Cat Holdings provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identification or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This position requires direct or indirect access to hardware software, technology or technical data controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Successful candidates for positions subject to ITAR/EAR restrictions must provide proof of U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Residence and must not require sponsorship for export-restricted work authorization.\nE-Verify\nThe company participates E-Verify ensure eligibility for employment and compliance with Right to Work rules.\nCompensation: Salary range: 132K - 183K plus equity and possible bonuses","description_format":"text","description_chars":8489,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Military","Robotics","Drones & UAVs","Military Drones"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-30T13:01:43Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":24,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.681,"p_room":0.35,"age_days":20,"expected_fill_days":10,"reasons":["conf:8","velocity","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/red-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/red-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-21T12:02:19Z","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":17036,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z"}},"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":176597},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=176597"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fred-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2"},{"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%2Fred-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2"},{"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%2Fred-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2"},{"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/red-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fred-cat-holdings-senior-software-engineer-2"}]}