Embedded Robotics Software Engineer

Develop the embedded Linux software, vehicle interfaces, hardware abstractions, telemetry services, and fault-recovery systems connecting Vanthal autonomy software to unmanned aircraft.

Department Software

Location Annapolis, Maryland

Region United States

Job type Full-time

Work arrangement On-site

Base compensation $140,000–$190,000 per year

Eligible for an annual performance bonus based on team or department success.

Vanthal Technologies is seeking an Embedded Robotics Software Engineer to develop the software layer connecting autonomy, mission systems, communications hardware, edge computers, flight controllers, sensors, and physical unmanned aircraft.

This is a full-time, on-site position based at Vanthal’s operations in Annapolis, Maryland. The role includes software development, laboratory integration, bench testing, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and live aircraft testing.

The Embedded Robotics Software Engineer will build reliable interfaces for vehicle discovery, telemetry ingestion, command translation, device management, health monitoring, logging, software deployment, fault recovery, and hardware abstraction across multiple aircraft configurations.

This is a hands‑on robotics position. The successful candidate must be comfortable working directly with embedded computers, flight controllers, radios, serial interfaces, electrical systems, test equipment, and physical aircraft.

This is not primarily a web-development, machine-learning, computer-vision, information-technology, or flight-controller-control-law position.

• Develop software for Linux-based edge-compute systems
• Develop vehicle interfaces for multiple unmanned‑aircraft configurations
• Create hardware-abstraction layers that isolate higher-level software from vehicle-specific interfaces
• Develop automatic discovery and identification of connected vehicle hardware
• Integrate with Pixhawk-compatible flight controllers
• Integrate with Ardu Pilot and PX4-based systems
• Integrate with Beta flight-based systems where applicable
• Develop and maintain MAVLink interfaces
• Develop and maintain MSP interfaces where applicable
• Integrate serial, USB, Ethernet, and other hardware communications interfaces
• Ingest, validate, normalize, and distribute aircraft telemetry
• Develop command acknowledgement, timeout, retry, and failure-handling behavior
• Develop aircraft health‑monitoring services
• Monitor flight-controller, communications, compute, power, storage, thermal, sensor, and peripheral status
• Develop watchdogs, heartbeats, and process-supervision systems
• Develop deterministic startup, initialization, shutdown, and restart behavior
• Develop fault-detection and fault-recovery behavior
• Develop structured system logging and diagnostic tools
• Implement local buffering and store‑and‑forward behavior where appropriate
• Develop software‑deployment and update mechanisms for edge computers
• Support signed, versioned, and recoverable software releases where implemented
• Develop configuration‑management systems for multiple aircraft types
• Integrate radios, sensors, cameras, navigation devices, and other peripherals
• Support communications interfaces with mesh‑networking hardware
• Support video, telemetry, command, and mission‑data pipelines
• Develop bench‑test and hardware‑in‑the‑loop tools
• Build simulators, mocks, and interface test harnesses
• Create automated integration and regression tests
• Analyze logs, telemetry, timing, resource usage, and hardware behavior
• Diagnose software, electrical, communications, and integration faults
• Support aircraft bring‑up and new‑hardware integration
  
  Participate in code review and software‑quality practices
• Maintain clear interface, architecture, configuration, and deployment documentation
• Support laboratory, field, flight‑test, and…