Embedded Software Engineer

• Design, develop, and maintain production embedded flight software for Hammerhead mission computers and related onboard compute platforms.
• Contribute to onboard software architecture, including process boundaries, inter-process communication, fault handling, resource allocation, upgrade strategy, and long-term maintainability.
• Implement and optimize real-time software interfaces with sensors, actuators, avionics, communications hardware, autonomy services, and guidance and control systems.
• Develop middleware, drivers, abstraction layers, and interface contracts that enable reliable data flow across airborne software modules and hardware components.
• Support build, test, deployment, and validation activities, including unit tests, integration tests, hardware-in-the-loop testing, release readiness, software configuration baselines, and deployment to flight hardware.
• Participate in hardware integration and flight test events, analyze flight data logs, diagnose software issues, and help validate system performance in operational environments.
• Maintain architecture documentation, interface specifications, release notes, technical decision records, and coding practices for flight-critical embedded systems.

• Ability to Obtain a Secret Clearance
• Degree in a relevant technical field is preferred, though equivalent practical experience will be considered.
• Embedded C/C++ or comparable systems programming experience for resource-constrained platforms.
• 8+ years of software engineering experience in embedded systems, robotics, aerospace, autonomy, defense technology, or a related technical environment.
• Working knowledge of hardware communication interfaces such as CAN bus, SPI, UART, I2C, and Ethernet.
• Practical experience designing, developing, debugging, and deploying software for embedded processors or mission-critical hardware platforms.
• Hands-on experience with real-time operating systems, deterministic software behavior, task scheduling, inter-process communication, and resource management.
• Experience coordinating with software, hardware, test, QA, and integration teams in rapid prototype-to-test environments.
• Ability to support on-site hardware integration and flight test events at test ranges, with 20-30% travel., * Experience with flight software for uncrewed aircraft, autonomous vehicles, interceptors, missiles, or other airborne systems.
• Experience serving as a technical lead, principal engineer, software architect, or senior contributor for embedded or autonomous systems.
• Experience transitioning prototype software into production-ready software baselines.
• Familiarity with autopilot frameworks such as PX4 or ArduPilot.
• Experience with safety-critical software development practices, software qualification, and validation in aerospace or defense environments.
• Understanding of guidance and control systems, including how commands flow from autonomy algorithms to actuators.
• Active or prior DoD security clearance, preferably Secret or above.

Join us if you’re passionate about pushing the boundaries of embedded technology! We value energetic problem-solvers eager to innovate in IoT ecosystems-helping shape the future of connected devices through your expertise in embedded software engineering!

Pulled from the full job description

• Health insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Paid time off
• Dental insurance, * 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

FPF Defense is seeking a Software Developer, Embedded Systems / Mission Computer, to help build the onboard software that powers Hammerhead, an affordable autonomous interceptor system designed to counter unmanned aerial threats at scale. In this role, you will design, develop, integrate, and sustain mission computer software that controls flight-critical functions, processes sensor data, supports autonomy services, and manages real-time engagement sequences.

This is a hands-on technical role for someone who enjoys working close to the hardware, writing production code, shaping software architecture, and supporting real-world integration and flight test events. The ideal candidate can contribute across embedded software development, real-time systems, sensor and hardware interfaces, build and test pipelines, and long-term product maintainability.

You will collaborate with software, hardware, autonomy, avionics, QA, external development partners, and flight test teams in a lean, fast-moving defense technology environment where broad ownership, clear communication, and disciplined engineering practices are essential.