Senior Software Engineer

Staff Software Engineer (Guidance, Navigation & Tracking) Location

Hawthorne - 20 minutes from LAX

4 days onsite (Mon-Thurs)

3-6 month contract to hire (with top performers converting earlier)

W2 - with benefits (healthcare, dental, vision, 401k)

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Staff Guidance, Navigation & Tracking (GNT) Software Engineer to join our R&D team. This role will lead the design, development, and integration of autonomous and semi-autonomous flight software for next-generation aerial systems.

Working on a clean-sheet airframe design, you will be responsible for developing guidance, navigation, tracking, and mission autonomy capabilities that enable effectors and unmanned aircraft to operate effectively in complex environments. This is a highly hands‑on engineering role requiring deep technical expertise across system architecture, algorithm development, software implementation, hardware integration, and flight testing.

• Design, develop, and implement guidance, navigation, tracking, and autonomy algorithms for unmanned aerial systems and airborne platforms.
• Develop flight software enabling autonomous and semi-autonomous navigation, mission execution, and target tracking capabilities.
• Lead the architecture and implementation of GNT systems for a clean-sheet air vehicle design.
• Develop software on embedded and Linux-based flight computing platforms.
• Integrate guidance and navigation software with flight hardware, sensors, autopilots, and mission systems.
• Support system integration, hardware/software testing, verification, validation, and flight test activities.
• Collaborate closely with airframe, systems, and mission engineering teams to optimize overall vehicle performance.
• Contribute across multiple product families as the organization expands its autonomous systems portfolio.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Applied Mathematics, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including object-oriented software development.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing Guidance, Navigation & Tracking (GNT) algorithms for airborne platforms.
• Strong understanding of flight dynamics, state estimation, navigation, sensor fusion, trajectory generation, path planning, target tracking, and autonomous flight behaviours.
• Proven experience developing software for flying vehicles, including drones, missiles, aircraft, helicopters, spacecraft, or similar airborne systems.
• Ability to independently design, develop, implement, integrate, and validate complete GNT solutions.
• Extensive experience with microcontroller-based systems (STM
  32 or similar) and Linux-based embedded computing platforms such as Nvidia Jetson, AMD/Xilinx SoCs, or similar architectures.
• U.S. Person status required due to access restrictions on controlled data and systems.

• Development of GNT systems from first principles for new aircraft or autonomous platforms.
• Significant modification, redesign, or extension of open-source autopilot frameworks such as Ardu Pilot or PX4, particularly within guidance, navigation, mission autonomy, or tracking subsystems.
• Experience with advanced tracking algorithms, target localization, sensor fusion, and contested navigation environments.
• Experience integrating EO/IR, radar, GNSS-denied navigation, or other mission sensors into autonomous systems.
• Current or previous DoD security clearance.
• Experience with FPGA firmware development using VHDL and AMD/Xilinx development environments.
• Experience with Git-based development work flows.
• Experience with production-level software deployment, Dev Ops, Dev Sec Ops , and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience delivering high-TRL systems through full lifecycle development, integration, verification, validation, and operational deployment.