Senior Software Engineer - Mission Autonomy (All Genders)

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionizing the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective. This provides our operators with a decisive edge in highly contested environments.

We're focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems - not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe - today.

We move fast, ship real software, and operate under constraints most engineers never encounter — low-bandwidth networks, air-gapped devices, high-stakes decision loops. There is no room for abstraction for its own sake. Everything we build ends up in the hands of real operators in the field.

Our Team is dedicated to a mission of pure strikes. As a Senior Software Engineer with a focus on Aerial Swarming, you will play a critical role in enabling real-time cooperative autonomy onboard next-generation multi-UAV platforms. You will work directly with decentralized routing networks, ROS2-based systems, and embedded compute platforms to build robust, efficient, and scalable swarming functionality.

You will contribute as a highly skilled individual contributor—hands-on with the system—bridging diverse codebases, optimizing real-time communications, and taking software from simulation through field deployment. Your work will be essential to ensuring that our autonomous multi-vehicle systems operate reliably in real-world, resource-constrained environments.

• Develop and integrate real-time cooperative control, decentralized routing, and perception algorithms on embedded platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson devices.
• Architect and optimize multi-agent communication networks utilizing ROS2 and DDS architectures to ensure reliable data distribution in challenging environments.
• Implement and maintain Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) testing environments to rigorously validate swarming features before physical flight.
• Collaborate with AI, controls, and hardware teams to ensure tight integration between swarming behaviors and other onboard subsystems.
• Profile and debug system performance under embedded constraints (compute, thermal, bandwidth), ensuring stability and robustness in multi-vehicle field deployments.
• Contribute to system-level architecture discussions with a focus on communication reliability, modularity, and clean C++ implementation.

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience in robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems.
• Expert-level proficiency in modern C++ (C++17/20) for low-latency, multi-threaded embedded and robotics development.
• Deep, hands-on knowledge of ROS2 and a strong foundational understanding of DDS architectures for real-time communication.
• Strong experience working with embedded Linux platforms, particularly NVIDIA Jetson devices, and hardware interfaces.
• Familiarity with autonomous swarming algorithms (e.g., flocking, consensus, decentralized task allocation) deployed on physical multi-vehicle systems is highly desirable.
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, especially in real-time or resource-constrained environments.
• Effective communicator and team player in multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Willingness to travel occasionally for field testing and deployment.

For further information please reach out to Sally Grütte-Pad, Interim Lead TA Partner via talent@stark-defence.com