Staff Engineer, Software - Autonomous Aircraft Integration

Yoh has an exciting, contract opportunity for a Staff Software Engineer – Autonomous Aircraft Integration to join our advanced autonomous technology client. This position is ideal for a senior engineer who enjoys working at the intersection of software, embedded hardware, and aircraft systems and is comfortable supporting both laboratory integration and live flight-test activities.

The engineer will play a key role in bringing autonomous capabilities from development into operational aircraft environments, including integrating software with onboard computing, sensors, avionics, and vehicle interfaces. This is a hands‑on position that requires strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to support systems in fast‑paced field and flight‑test environments.

See below for abbreviated job responsibilities and requirements.

Staff Software Engineer – Autonomous Aircraft Integration

Washington, DC;
Boston, MA; or San Diego, CA (Onsite)

Contract

$95.00–$135.00/hour, depending on experience

Must be eligible to obtain a U.S. Government Secret security clearance. Clearance eligibility requirements may include U.S. citizenship.

• Lead integration and deployment of autonomous software capabilities onto unmanned aircraft and related flight platforms.
• Integrate software with onboard computing, sensors, avionics, communications, and vehicle control interfaces.
• Configure, build, and validate integrated systems in preparation for flight testing and operational demonstrations.
• Provide hands‑on technical support during flight‑test events, including system startup, readiness verification, troubleshooting, and issue resolution.
• Diagnose complex hardware/software integration problems across embedded computing and autonomy environments.
• Support collection, processing, and evaluation of flight‑test data to identify system issues and opportunities for performance improvements.
• Partner with software, autonomy, guidance/navigation/control, systems engineering, and test teams throughout integration and validation activities.
• Develop scripts, utilities, and processes that improve system testing, deployment, diagnostics, logging, and integration efficiency.
• Contribute to system verification, technical documentation, airworthiness, certification, and other applicable compliance activities.
• Travel to company, customer, and flight‑test locations as required to support integration and operational events.

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent relevant experience may also be considered.
• Typically 7+ years of relevant professional experience with a bachelor's degree, 5+ years with a master's degree, or comparable advanced education and experience.
• Strong programming experience with C++ and Python
  .
• Hands‑on experience developing, integrating, or troubleshooting embedded and real‑time systems
  .
• Strong working knowledge of Linux
  , including command‑line tools, shell scripting, system configuration, and diagnostics.
• Understanding of sensor integration, sensor fusion, and distributed or robotics middleware technologies such as ROS or DDS
  .
• Experience supporting live system demonstrations, flight tests, field exercises, or other real‑world integration events.
• Familiarity with modeling and simulation environments used to test or validate complex aerospace or defense systems.
• Strong systems‑level troubleshooting skills across software and hardware interfaces.
• Ability to communicate effectively and collaborate across multidisciplinary engineering and test organizations.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 30–40%.

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