Navi — Founding Software Engineer
$200,000–$250,000 year
On-siteSan Francisco, California, United States
Job Summary
Build and scale the backend and data infrastructure for the AI debrief platform, ingesting multimodal flight audio and telemetry to produce structured output for flight instructors and military operators. Integrate flight dynamics and cockpit audio into training systems used by collegiate programs, commercial academies, and defense branches. Own architecture decisions, framework selection, and infrastructure choices while shipping production code across the full stack. Work directly with pilots and operators to translate feedback into engineering decisions, setting code standards and hiring bars from the founding stage. Requires a current FAA pilot certificate, five years of engineering experience, and a scrappy background operating in ambiguity.
Required Qualifications
- A current FAA pilot certificate at private pilot level or above, up to and including CFII or ATP
- At least five years of professional software engineering experience
- Strong depth in at least one of backend systems, distributed infrastructure, data engineering, or full-stack development
- Working proficiency in both Python and TypeScript
- A history of leading projects from initial scoping and technical design all the way through launch and iteration
- Sound architectural judgment
- Experience building for scale, reliability, and performance
- A scrappy, entrepreneurial background
- Comfort operating in ambiguity and moving quickly without letting quality slip
- A habit of lifting the standard around you through code review and mentoring
- Willingness to work startup hours on-site in San Francisco five days a week
Desired Qualifications
- Hands-on work with modern data pipelines, real-time systems, or AI/ML integration
- Something you built from nothing that real people ended up using
- Practical experience with AWS, CI/CD, containers, and deployment tooling
- Exposure to aviation systems, avionics data formats, flight training workflows, or defense technology environments
- Real aviation context beyond the certificate itself
- A previous founding or lead engineering role at an aviation or otherwise deeply technical startup
- A full-stack track record where you held architectural ownership rather than executing someone else's design
- Experience with multimodal or real-time pipelines, including audio diarization, signal processing, or speech-to-text at the application layer
- Regular use of AI-assisted development tools in your day-to-day workflow
- Genuine readiness for the grind of a very early company
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