Careers at Swarmaero

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. We are scaling fast, and our software work now carries real customer commitments: releases tied to milestones, integration with hardware we don't always own, and demos that have to work the first time. We need a Program Manager who can run a software-heavy defense program with the rigor of a hardware program and the speed of a software team. You will join our Program Management Office, reporting to the Director of PMO, and own cost, schedule, scope, and risk for a software-centric program. You will sit with engineering leads, product, and our forward deployed engineers, and you will be the person who can tell a customer exactly what ships, when, and what it took to get there. What you'll do Own the program plan and integrated schedule, tying sprint and release plans to contract milestones, demos, and customer events Translate customer requirements into a prioritized, traceable backlog with engineering and product, and manage scope changes against cost and schedule Run the program cadence: release planning, weekly program reviews, risk and issue boards, and monthly status to leadership and customers Manage program budget and burn, including labor across multiple engineering teams, and flag variance early with a recovery plan Coordinate software integration with aircraft, partner hardware, and government systems, including test events, field exercises, and demonstrations Drive software delivery and accreditation work with our DevSecOps team: deliverable packages, documentation, and cyber and ATO requirements where they apply Lead customer-facing milestone reviews and own contract deliverables (CDRLs, status reports, technical data) Partner with the Director of PMO to build program practices that fit how software teams actually work, without adding bureaucracy What you bring 6+ years of program or technical program management, with at least 3 years owning software or software-intensive programs for DoD or other government customers Fluency in agile delivery (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe or similar) and experience mapping it to milestone-based defense contracts Enough technical depth to follow architecture discussions, challenge estimates, and spot integration risk early; a software engineering background is a strong plus Experience delivering software that integrates with hardware: autonomy, C2, mission systems, avionics, or similar Hands-on with schedule and backlog tools (Jira, Smartsheet, MS Project or similar) and with budget tracking Comfort leading customer reviews and owning contract deliverables Clear, direct communicator who can brief an engineer and a program officer in the same afternoon U.S. person status as defined by ITAR, and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance Nice to have Program experience on UAS autonomy, collaborative autonomy, or C2 software Experience with DoD software acquisition pathways, OTAs, or SBIR contracts Exposure to DevSecOps, software factories, or ATO and RMF processes Background at a startup or fast-scaling defense tech company Active Secret clearance or higher PMP, PMI-ACP, SAFe, or DAWIA Program Management certification Location and details Location: Hybrid, based in Oxnard, CA, with occasional travel to customers, test events, and partner sites Reports to: Director of PMO Compensation: [Add posted base salary range] plus equity and benefits Export control: This role requires access to information subject to ITAR. Candidates must be U.S. persons as defined by 22 CFR 120.62. ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. About Swarm Aero Swarm Aero builds Group 5 autonomous aircraft and Legion, our command and control platform for coordinating UAV swarms. We're backed by Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Coatue, and our software is already running on real programs and real hardware. Legion is the layer operators actually touch, and it needs to ship fast, run reliably, and deploy anywhere our customers need it. The role You'll be a core member of the team that builds and runs the infrastructure behind Legion. Working alongside our DevSecOps lead, you'll own day-to-day pipelines, environments, and deployments so our engineers can move quickly without breaking the things operators depend on. This is a hands-on role for someone who likes building systems more than writing tickets about them. What you'll do Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines that take Legion from commit to production across multiple environments Manage infrastructure as code for cloud and on-prem deployments Run and scale containerized services on Kubernetes Build out observability: monitoring, logging, alerting, and on-call tooling Package and deploy Legion to customer environments, including travel to customer and test sites when deployments require it Partner with our DevSecOps lead to bake security and compliance requirements into the platform from the start Help engineers across Legion ship faster by improving developer tooling and environments What we're looking for 4 to 8 years in DevOps, platform, SRE, or infrastructure engineering Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes, containers, and infrastructure as code (Terraform or similar) Experience building and owning CI/CD pipelines in a production environment Solid Linux and networking fundamentals Scripting in Python, Go, or Bash Active Secret clearance or higher strongly preferred; must be able to obtain and maintain a US security clearance Willingness to travel to customer and test sites Nice to have Experience deploying to air-gapped, disconnected, or edge environments Background in defense tech, government programs, or regulated environments Experience supporting real-time or mission-critical systems ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. Most backend roles ask you to wire up an API and move records in and out of a database. This one asks you to build the systems that keep the largest drone swarm on the planet coordinated in real time. You'll help architect the backend for Legion's Command & Control platform: the systems that let a single operator plan, direct, and execute missions across a networked swarm of heterogeneous aircraft, in real time, over intermittent comms, at a scale nobody else in the industry is attempting. This isn't CRUD. It's real-time distributed systems, high-throughput telemetry pipelines, and infrastructure for a problem space that barely has prior art. WHAT YOU'LL DO Help architect the backend for a C2 system directing swarms of heterogeneous aircraft Build distributed, collaborative real-time infrastructure for controlling large numbers of aircraft simultaneously, even when comms drop Design and build the services that ingest, process, and distribute dense vehicle telemetry, sensor data, scheduling, crew resources, and data link management, much of it with no existing playbook to follow Own backend features end to end, from design through deployment Ship early, ship often, backed by strong CI/CD, QA, and DevSecOps WHAT YOU'VE DONE Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience 6+ years building complex backend systems with real distributed systems depth Strong instincts for reliability, performance, and scalability, and the tools to back them up Built and operated production backend services and APIs at scale WHAT SETS YOU APART Experience with real-time and event-driven distributed systems A track record with performance-sensitive, high-throughput application development Familiarity with messaging and streaming protocols Experience operating systems under degraded or intermittent connectivity Experience with geospatial data or applications Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required. WHY THIS ROLE You'll be one of the earliest engineers shaping how humans command autonomous systems at scale, work that's currently being defined in real time, by a small team, with your fingerprints on the architecture. If you want to build the future of human-swarm interaction rather than maintain someone else's, this is that seat. ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. Legion's Command & Control platform lets a single operator plan, direct, and execute missions across a networked swarm of heterogeneous aircraft, in real time, over intermittent comms, at a scale nobody else in the industry is attempting. That means distributed state under unreliable networks, dense telemetry moving fast enough to strain anything you've built before, and interfaces for a problem space that barely has prior art. You'll work across the stack, wherever the hard problem is that week. WHAT YOU'LL DO Build and ship features in the C2 system that directs swarms of heterogeneous aircraft Work on systems that hold state and stay responsive when comms degrade or drop entirely Move between the interface layer and the services behind it, following the problem rather than a job description Prototype new ways to represent and control vehicle telemetry, sensor data, and scheduling Take features end to end, from a rough problem statement through design, implementation, and deployment Ship early and often, backed by strong CI/CD, QA, and DevSecOps WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent self-taught depth Real strength in fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, concurrency, networking, systems Evidence you've built something hard because you wanted to. A renderer, an emulator, a game, a compiler, a multiplayer server, a robotics project, a serious open source contribution. We care more about what you've built than where you worked Comfort writing code at more than one layer of the stack, and no strong attachment to staying at one Willingness to work on problems where the right answer isn't known yet, and to be wrong in public on the way to finding it WHAT SETS YOU APART Competitive programming background (ICPC, IOI, Codeforces, USACO, Putnam) Game development, game jams, engine work, or simulation Performance-sensitive work: profiling, frame budgets, memory pressure, running on constrained hardware Real-time or distributed systems experience: multiplayer netcode, streaming, pub/sub, robotics middleware Graphics: WebGL, OpenGL, Vulkan, shaders Working fluency in Go, C++, or Rust Familiarity with video streaming protocols or geospatial applications Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required. WHY THIS ROLE You'll be one of the earliest engineers shaping how humans command autonomous systems at scale, work that's currently being defined in real time, by a small team, with your fingerprints on the architecture. If you want to build the future of human-swarm interaction rather than maintain someone else's, this is that seat. ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. Our aircraft will operate in non-segregated airspace, over populated areas, and in proximity to civilian aircraft, other swarming assets, terrain, and airborne intruders including threats. We need someone who can support the architecture that holds it all together, from requirements through integration and flight. What You'll Do Maintain and refine the system architecture, translating mission and operational requirements into clear technical specifications Focus in one of several domains including avionics, flight controls, propulsion, landing, software, mission systems, and separation from traffic, terrain, or weather Develop and maintain system requirements, interface control documents (ICDs), and functional decomposition across aircraft subsystems Lead cross-discipline integration to ensure that subsystem interfaces are well-defined and validated Develop and implement the digital thread that supports configuration management Perform system-level trade studies and participate in design reviews to drive architecture decisions that balance performance, risk, schedule, and mass constraints Support hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) integration testing including investigation and resolution of anomalies Coordinate with ground and flight test teams to define system verification plans and close requirements through analysis and test artifacts Identify, track, and mitigate technical risk across the program lifecycle, escalating issues with data-driven recommendations Contribute to airworthiness and flight authorization documentation What We're Looking For 7+ years of systems engineering experience on aerospace, defense, or UAS platforms Familiarity with authoring, negotiating, managing, and maintaining system requirements using modern digital tools (e.g. Jama, Polarion, JIRA, etc.) for software and hardware Ability to write clear, verifiable, and testable system requirements using industry-standard patterns Strong command of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) principles including modeling, analysis, and simulation with digital connections to requirements Deep experience with systems modeling using SysML (e.g. Cameo) Hands-on experience driving integration across multi-disciplinary hardware and software teams Experience maintaining configuration control and digital continuity across models, requirements, and verification artifacts Familiarity with systems verification and validation methodologies (test, analysis, inspection, demonstration) including digital traceability to requirements Ability to define, validate, refine, and verify requirements and system architectures US person status required Nice to Have Background in flight control, avionics, or propulsion subsystem integration Experience with ARP4754 in a vehicle or platform development program Exposure to defense programs, military airworthiness, or flight authorization processes including MIL-HDBK-516 Active security clearance ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. The Opportunity Most full stack roles ask you to move pixels around a dashboard. This one asks you to help architect the system that controls the largest drone swarm on the planet. You’ll join the team building Legion, Swarm Aero’s Command & Control platform. Legion enables a single operator to plan, direct, and execute missions across a networked swarm of heterogeneous aircraft in real time, over intermittent communications, and at a scale nobody else in the industry is attempting. This is not a role maintaining a finished product or adding features around the edges. You’ll help define the architecture, establish core technical patterns, and build entirely new capabilities for a problem space with little prior art. The work spans real-time distributed systems, dense telemetry visualization, collaborative mission planning, and operator interfaces where clarity and reliability directly affect mission outcomes. You’ll have meaningful influence over what we build, how we build it, and how the platform evolves as the team and system scale. WHAT YOU’LL DO Help architect and build the full stack of a Command & Control system directing large swarms of heterogeneous aircraft Design the foundational systems, technical patterns, and interfaces that will shape Legion as it scales Build collaborative, real-time infrastructure that allows operators to control large numbers of aircraft simultaneously, including through degraded or intermittent communications Create new ways to represent and interact with vehicle telemetry, sensor data, mission schedules, crew resources, data links, and other complex operational information Take ambiguous operational problems from first principles to deployed capability, often without an existing playbook to follow Own major features end to end, from system design and technical architecture through implementation, testing, and deployment Work closely with operators, designers, and engineers across software, autonomy, and aircraft systems Ship early and iterate quickly, supported by strong CI/CD, QA, and DevSecOps practices WHAT YOU'VE DONE Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience 4+ years building complex full stack applications with real frontend and backend depth Strong UI/UX instincts and the tools to back them up Built production web interfaces with React or a comparable modern framework WHAT SETS YOU APART Experience with both immediate mode (games, simulation) and retained mode UI paradigms A track record with performance-sensitive application development Familiarity with video streaming protocols WebGL/OpenGL experience Experience with geospatial applications Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required. WHY THIS ROLE You'll be one of the earliest engineers shaping how humans command autonomous systems at scale, work that's currently being defined in real time, by a small team, with your fingerprints on the architecture. If you want to build the future of human-swarm interaction rather than maintain someone else's, this is that seat. ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. The Opportunity Most full stack roles ask you to move pixels around a dashboard. This one asks you to help architect the system that controls the largest drone swarm on the planet. You’ll join the team building Legion, Swarm Aero’s Command & Control platform. Legion enables a single operator to plan, direct, and execute missions across a networked swarm of heterogeneous aircraft in real time, over intermittent communications, and at a scale nobody else in the industry is attempting. This is not a role maintaining a finished product or adding features around the edges. You’ll help define the architecture, establish core technical patterns, and build entirely new capabilities for a problem space with little prior art. The work spans real-time distributed systems, dense telemetry visualization, collaborative mission planning, and operator interfaces where clarity and reliability directly affect mission outcomes. You’ll have meaningful influence over what we build, how we build it, and how the platform evolves as the team and system scale. WHAT YOU’LL DO Help architect and build the full stack of a Command & Control system directing large swarms of heterogeneous aircraft Design the foundational systems, technical patterns, and interfaces that will shape Legion as it scales Build collaborative, real-time infrastructure that allows operators to control large numbers of aircraft simultaneously, including through degraded or intermittent communications Create new ways to represent and interact with vehicle telemetry, sensor data, mission schedules, crew resources, data links, and other complex operational information Take ambiguous operational problems from first principles to deployed capability, often without an existing playbook to follow Own major features end to end, from system design and technical architecture through implementation, testing, and deployment Work closely with operators, designers, and engineers across software, autonomy, and aircraft systems Ship early and iterate quickly, supported by strong CI/CD, QA, and DevSecOps practices WHAT YOU'VE DONE Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience 4+ years building complex full stack applications with real frontend and backend depth Strong UI/UX instincts and the tools to back them up Built production web interfaces with React or a comparable modern framework WHAT SETS YOU APART Experience with both immediate mode (games, simulation) and retained mode UI paradigms A track record with performance-sensitive application development Familiarity with video streaming protocols WebGL/OpenGL experience Experience with geospatial applications Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required. WHY THIS ROLE You'll be one of the earliest engineers shaping how humans command autonomous systems at scale, work that's currently being defined in real time, by a small team, with your fingerprints on the architecture. If you want to build the future of human-swarm interaction rather than maintain someone else's, this is that seat. ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. About the Role We've built an autonomy stack that already runs on real programs and real hardware, and we designed it to be platform-agnostic from the start. The next step is the one that matters most: scaling it onto our own aircraft to field the largest drone swarm in the world. We're looking for a Software Engineer, Autonomy to own that stack and lead the work. This is a high-leverage technical role. You'll own the architectural direction for the perception, planning, and control systems running onboard every vehicle in the swarm, and you'll raise the bar for the autonomy engineers building around you. What You'll Do Own and evolve our autonomy stack, extending proven robotic foundations with agentic AI for onboard reasoning, adaptation, and swarm coordination at scale. Harden and extend the inter-robot and C2 communication protocols behind tactical swarm decision making on the edge, including under degraded and contested comms. Revisit and defend the hard technical tradeoffs as we move to aircraft and scale: onboard vs. offboard compute, centralized vs. distributed decision making, determinism vs. adaptability. Some of our current answers carry over. Some won't survive the move to airborne compute and contested comms. You'll decide which. Take autonomy capability from integration and test into fielded operation, and close the loop from test data back into the stack. Mentor and technically guide a growing team of robotics engineers. Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code, and set the standard for what good looks like. Travel up to 25% of the time for onsite test and integration events. Basic Qualifications Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Robotics, or related technical field. 5+ years building and deploying autonomy software at a major aerospace company or serious autonomous vehicle program. Track record of owning architecture for a shipped autonomous system, not just contributing components to one. Deep expertise in at least one systems language (C/C++, Rust, or Go). Proven experience deploying and validating frontier autonomy systems, including vision-language-action models, learned world models, trajectory optimization, sensor fusion, and multi-agent coordination. Excellent software engineering practices with emphasis on testable, reliable code. Preferred Qualifications Experience with multi-agent or swarm systems. Experience with robotics middleware (DDS/ROS2, ZeroMQ, gRPC) and serialization formats (Protobuf). Familiarity with government UxS interoperability standards (OMS/UCI, STANAG 4586, FACE). Prior tech lead, staff engineer, or architect responsibility on an autonomy team. Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required. ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. About the Role We've built an autonomy stack that already runs on real programs and real hardware, and we designed it to be platform-agnostic from the start. The next step is the one that matters most: scaling it onto our own aircraft to field the largest drone swarm in the world. We're looking for a Software Engineer, Autonomy to own that stack and lead the work. This is a high-leverage technical role. You'll own the architectural direction for the perception, planning, and control systems running onboard every vehicle in the swarm, and you'll raise the bar for the autonomy engineers building around you. What You'll Do Own and evolve our autonomy stack, extending proven robotic foundations with agentic AI for onboard reasoning, adaptation, and swarm coordination at scale. Harden and extend the inter-robot and C2 communication protocols behind tactical swarm decision making on the edge, including under degraded and contested comms. Revisit and defend the hard technical tradeoffs as we move to aircraft and scale: onboard vs. offboard compute, centralized vs. distributed decision making, determinism vs. adaptability. Some of our current answers carry over. Some won't survive the move to airborne compute and contested comms. You'll decide which. Take autonomy capability from integration and test into fielded operation, and close the loop from test data back into the stack. Mentor and technically guide a growing team of robotics engineers. Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code, and set the standard for what good looks like. Travel up to 25% of the time for onsite test and integration events. Basic Qualifications Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field. 3+ years building soft-real-time embedded systems. Deep expertise in at least one systems language (Golang, Rust, or C/C++). Proven experience deploying and validating robotics algorithms (Dubins planning, SLAM, Kalman filters, particle filters, A*, behavior trees, reinforcement learning, etc.). Working knowledge of embedded systems (SPI/I2C/serial protocols, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, microcontroller programming). Strong networking fundamentals (NAT, mDNS, UDP/TCP, multicast, firewall configuration). Excellent software engineering practices with emphasis on testable, reliable code. Preferred Qualifications Experience with perception systems, sensor fusion, or multi-target tracking (Kalman-based trackers, JPDA, MHT, or similar). Contributions to deployed robotics or IoT systems requiring complex edge processing (aerospace, autonomous vehicles, etc.). Experience with robotics middleware (DDS/ROS2, ZeroMQ, gRPC) and serialization formats (Protobuf). Familiarity with government UxS interoperability standards (OMS/UCI, STANAG 4586, FACE). Hands-on electronics skills (breadboarding, soldering, schematic interpretation, datasheet analysis). Deep learning experience. Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required. ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic. Swarm Aero is building large, autonomous, swarming UAS for operations at scale in contested environments. Our aircraft are complex platforms that will operate at the edge of what's possible in non-segregated airspace with high levels of automation. We need a Software Systems Engineer who can support the software that makes it work reliably and robustly. What You'll Do Lead implementation of software standards, process, and development approaches Maintain and refine the software system architecture Derive software requirements from the functional decomposition of aircraft subsystems Define clean interfaces for software interoperability Work closely with design engineers in propulsion, avionics, and flight control Produce and manage verification artifacts for requirements traceability Participate in design reviews to drive architecture decisions that balance performance, risk, schedule, and complexity constraints Support hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) integration testing including investigation and resolution of anomalies Coordinate with ground and flight test teams to define software verification plans Identify, track, and mitigate technical risk across the program lifecycle, escalating issues with data-driven recommendations Contribute to airworthiness and flight authorization documentation What We're Looking For 7+ years of experience in systems engineering on aerospace, defense, or UAS platforms with a focus on software Strong foundation in systems engineering principles and practices Ability to write clear, verifiable, and testable requirements using industry-standard patterns Familiarity with authoring and maintaining requirements using modern digital tools (e.g. Jama, Polarion, JIRA, etc.) Expertise in software development and verification activities for civil or military aircraft Experience with formal methods for verification and validation (e.g. DO-333) Experience with software development standards for civil aviation (e.g. DO-178, DO-254) Experience with software aspects of military safety standards and handbooks (e.g. MIL-STD-882, JSSSEH) Ability to obtain US Government clearance required Nice to Have Background in flight control, avionics, or propulsion subsystem integration Experience with ARP4754 and ARP4761 Exposure to defense programs, military airworthiness, or flight authorization processes including MIL-HDBK-516 Active security clearance ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. What We Offer Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company Competitive base salary commensurate with experience Medical, dental, vision, and 401k PTO and paid sick leave Monthly wellness stipend Daily catered lunch (office) Paid parental leave Direct impact on a critical national security mission A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems