Senior Engineering Manager – OS

Who We Are

At Firestorm, we are building the future of expeditionary defense manufacturing and autonomous systems. Modern conflict has exposed a fundamental problem: the systems needed most by operators are often too expensive, too slow to produce, and too difficult to sustain estorm exists to change that.

We develop mission-adaptable aerial systems and deployable manufacturing infrastructure designed to put capability directly into the hands of the warfighter. From modular unmanned aircraft to xCell — our deployable microfactory — our goal is to make defense systems rapidly deployable, adaptable, and producible at the point of need.

We are looking for builders, operators, and problem-solvers who want to work on meaningful technology with real-world impact.

Firestorm builds modular autonomous aircraft designed to adapt across missions, payloads, and deployment environments.

Firestorm OS is the common software platform that enables those aircraft. It provides the Linux-based services, communications, media, hardware interfaces, SDKs, and system capabilities used across Firestorm aircraft and their variants.

As the aircraft portfolio grows, Firestorm OS has to remain reusable across different sensors, payloads, radios, propulsion systems, and compute platforms while providing stable interfaces to autonomy and application software.

We are hiring a Senior Engineering Manager to lead the Firestorm OS team. You will own the team, technical direction, and execution of the platform while remaining close to the architecture and software. You will work across autonomy, avionics, electrical, mechanical, and systems engineering to build an OS platform that evolves Firestorm’s aircraft portfolio.

• Lead Firestorm OS — Own the team responsible for the common software platform across Firestorm aircraft.
• Drive platform architecture — Define system boundaries, interfaces, services, and abstractions that allow Firestorm OS to support multiple aircraft and hardware configurations.
• Build reusable aircraft software — Lead development of Linux services, communications, media, radios, SDKs, hardware interfaces, and other shared platform capabilities.
• Drive platform execution — Turn aircraft and product needs into clear priorities, technical work, and reliable software releases.
• Own cross-system integration — Work with autonomy, avionics, payload, electrical, and systems teams to integrate new hardware and capabilities without creating one-off solutions.
• Set the engineering bar — Establish strong practices for design, testing, code review, diagnostics, packaging, deployment, and release.
• Debug the full system — Lead resolution of difficult problems that cross application software, Linux, networking, hardware, and aircraft interfaces.
• Grow the team — Hire, develop, and lead engineers with strong embedded Linux and systems software fundamentals.

• 8+ years building and shipping embedded, systems, or Linux-based software
• 3+ years leading software engineering teams with responsibility for people, execution, and delivery
• Strong C or C++ experience and deep embedded Linux fundamentals
• Experience designing software platforms, APIs, or shared services used across multiple products or systems
• Experience developing Linux applications, system services, networking, and software that interfaces with hardware
• Experience integrating software across complex hardware and software boundaries
• Strong understanding of reliability, debugging, testing, and release practices for deployed systems
• Demonstrated ability to make technical tradeoffs and drive ambiguous system problems from architecture through delivery
• Strong written and verbal communication across software and hardware engineering teams
• Ability…