Manager, Mission Systems Software
$141,000–$215,000 year
On-siteSan Diego, California, United States
Job Summary
Manage a large, multi-site team of software engineers building onboard mission systems for uncrewed aircraft, including vision-based navigation, autonomy, and flight software. Drive hiring, onboarding, and career development while scaling the team to meet expanding program demand. Partner with the Software Chief Engineer to shape the roadmap and coordinate projects across multiple programs in an Agile environment. Establish adherence to budgets, schedules, and work plans while championing software quality through design reviews and disciplined release practices. Work closely with systems engineering, GNC, hardware, and test teams to align software with integration and flight-test milestones. Occasionally travel within the Continental U.S.
Required Qualifications
- BS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related
- 12+ years of software engineering experience
- strong background in embedded, robotics, or mission systems software development
- At least 4+ years in a management or technical lead role
- successfully leading a software team of 15 or more engineers
- Demonstrated success building and scaling a software team through a period of rapid growth
- Experience delivering flight-critical or mission-critical software through a full development lifecycle, from requirements through integration, test, and deployment
- Experienced with modern development and CI/CD tooling (e.g., Git/GitLab, CI pipelines, containerization) and Linux environments
- Demonstrated ability to work across software, systems, GNC, and program teams to deliver on program and customer milestones
- Occasionally may be required to travel within the Continental U.S.
- U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent Resident (Green Card holder) or asylee/refugee status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)
- Must be willing to work on government contracts and have the ability to obtain a security clearance
Desired Qualifications
- Advanced degree
- Background delivering software for UAS, drones, robotics, autonomous systems, or other defense or aerospace platforms
- Familiarity with mission systems domains such as computer vision, machine learning, autonomy, or GNC
- Familiarity with real-time flight software and robotics/autonomy software frameworks
- Familiarity with open-systems and airworthiness standards (e.g., MOSA, FACE, DO-178)
- Experience leading a distributed or multi-site team in a defense technology or fast-paced product environment
- Prior experience or clearance eligibility to support work in a controlled or cleared environment
- Demonstrates competency in communicating technically and effectively across software, systems, GNC, and program groups and staff
- Skilled at identifying, communicating and mitigating technical risks and issues
- Embraces AI-assisted development tooling and encourages its adoption to improve team efficiency and quality
- Demonstrates strong interpersonal, written and oral communication skills
- Exercises independent judgment in methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining results
- Uses vision to think beyond the immediate situation, explore multiple potential paths, and adapt decision-making style based on the situational circumstances
- Inspires, motivates, and empowers people to deliver organizational goals, while also delivering value back to employees
- Brings organizational values to life using personality, uniqueness and the creation of a shared vision
- Champions the process of change and promotes a culture of quick adaptation while helping others deal with the effects of change
- Demonstrates the ability to develop and maintain internal and external trusting, professional relationships
- Assesses the degree of risk and opportunity in plans or actions and takes appropriate action to mitigate them or makes plans to build on the opportunity
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