Software Integration Engineer

About Forterra

At Forterra, we are unleashing autonomy at scale to transform the battlefield. Our mission is to build the foundational platforms that enable an intelligent ecosystem to coordinate, adapt, and execute with speed and precision even in the uncertainty and disruption of modern conflict. In an era marked by rapid technological change and evolving threats, we design for flexibility, survivability, and operational dominance.

Forterra delivers weapons, sensors, and battlefield effects through integrated autonomous networks reaching operational areas faster, safer, and without placing human lives  systems operate with distributed control, dynamic routing, and real-time responsiveness, enabling sustained advantage across complex mission environments.

Forterra is seeking a software engineer with a passion for autonomous systems. In this role, you will design, develop, and field software solutions that enable intelligent behavior in robotics and automation technologies. You will directly support real‑world missions across our fleet of ground vehicles operated by our national security customers around the world.

The ideal candidate has a strong software development background, familiarity with robotics and autonomous systems, and proven track record of collaborating with a cross‑functional team of engineers, researchers, and product managers to create robust and scalable software for complex systems.

• Bring autonomy into real operations: Integrate and deploy our autonomy stack on customer‑bound hardware platforms and validate it in real‑world conditions.
• Build with users and stakeholders: Work across the organization and directly with end‑users to deliver new behaviors, payload integrations, and emerging mission use‑cases.
• Optimize the full system: Take a holistic view of autonomous vehicle behavior—how sensing, compute, controls, and other subsystems interact—and drive overall performance improvements.
• Close the loop from test to deploy: Analyze test results, identify issues and root causes, and collaborate with engineering teams to drive problems to resolution.
• Improve the core autonomy stack: Detect performance shortfalls, shape solution approaches, and implement enhancements in partnership with cross‑functional teams.
• Connect product needs to R&D execution: Partner across business development and engineering teams to translate customer requirements into delivered autonomy capabilities.
• Travel: Travel ranging from 10‑25% and 25‑50% depending on candidate preference and role placement. Ability to commute to Arlington, VA as needed.

• B.S. in computer science, engineering, robotics, or related field or relevant experience/show of skill
• Experience in integrating software on hardware products
• Strong programming skills in languages such as C++, Python, or Java
• Solid core software engineering skills: software design, unit testing, debugging
• Ability to consistently deliver production‑quality software in a continuously integrated environment
• Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, and software design principles
• Demonstrates clean, maintainable code and documentation practices

• Experience in software development for robotics and autonomous systems
• Experience with ROS2
• Experience with state machines and motion / path planning
• Knowledge of navigation, mapping algorithms and robot perception
• Familiarity with real‑time operating systems and embedded programming

US Salary Range
$110,000—$135,000

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full‑time, high‑demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package.

In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full‑time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits:
  Three plan options, including…