About Careertakes

👉 Important disclosure: Careertakes is a third-party recruiting platform supporting this hiring process. If selected, you will be employed directly by our client, Defense and Space Manufacturing.

Applicants for this role may also receive access to additional matched opportunities through the Careertakes platform.

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What You’ll Do

• Develop onboard autonomy behaviors including route following, contingency handling, and return-to-base logic for autonomous aerial systems
• Design and implement multi-aircraft coordination and task-allocation algorithms
• Integrate autonomy software with flight control stacks, perception modules, and datalinks
• Build and maintain simulation scenarios for autonomy development, verification, and regression testing
• Profile and optimize code for embedded compute platforms to meet real-time constraints
• Support flight test activities, analyze flight logs, and resolve defects found during integration and operations
• Document software architecture, interfaces, and test plans to support reproducibility and verification

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Minimum Qualifications

• Must be located in the United States and within commuting distance of Rock Hill, SC
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline — or equivalent practical experience
• Professional experience developing robotics or autonomy software using C++ or Python
• Experience with ROS 2 or comparable robotics middleware
• Hands-on experience with simulation-based development and testing workflows
• Working knowledge of coordinate frames, state estimation, and vehicle dynamics
• Comfortable developing in Linux-based environments and using standard development tooling
• U.S. Person status required (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)); role involves access to ITAR- and EAR-controlled technical data

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Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, or similar autopilot stacks
• Familiarity with Gazebo or comparable simulation tools
• Background in multi-agent / collaborative autonomy or task allocation
• Experience fielding software on aircraft, ground robots, or other autonomous vehicles
• Active or prior U.S. security clearance

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Why This Role Matters

You will help build autonomy software that runs on physical vehicles in conditions that simulation does not fully capture. The work spans simulation, flight test, and optimization on embedded platforms — ideal for engineers who enjoy seeing their code operate in the real world and iterating quickly to close the gap between simulation and field behavior.

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Keywords & Tools You’ll Use

• C++, Python
• ROS 2
• Simulation frameworks (Gazebo or similar)
• Embedded Linux, profiling & optimization tools
• Flight control integration (PX4/ArduPilot experience welcome)
• Multi-agent/autonomy algorithms

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Equal Opportunity & Hiring Transparency

Careertakes and our client are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind. To support a fair and efficient hiring process, AI tools may be used to assist with application review or resume screening. These tools do not replace human decision-making. Final hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions about how your data is used, please contact us directly.