Principal Software Engineer (Device & Edge Applications)

Jobs in JS; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Private Medical & Dental

Cycle to work scheme

Lunchtime catering on site

Job summary

Cambridge Aerospace seeks an engineer for the Internal Tooling team to build software running on our physical devices, including test stations, manufacturing rigs and lab equipment. You will enable data flow from devices to backend services and integrate with hardware, protocols and cloud components.

You will work across device interfaces, back-end integration and remote diagnostics, with a focus on reliability, deployment and maintainability.

Qualifications

• Proficient in Python and C++, with exposure to Rust, Go or C#.
• Experience talking to hardware over interfaces such as serial, USB, CAN and Ethernet/TCP.
• Experience building clients that send data to REST backends with retries and offline support.
• Solid Linux experience: systemd services, networking, permissions and device access.
• Knowledge of concurrency, async I/O and robust error handling in long-running apps.
• Experience owning full development lifecycle: requirements, design, implementation, testing and handover.
• Familiar with Git, code reviews and Agile planning.
• Embedded firmware or microcontroller development (e.g. STM32) is a plus.
• Docker containerised deployments on edge devices and device fleet management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design of applications and services that run on physical devices and talk to custom hardware and lab instruments.
• Build reliable data pipelines from devices to backend APIs that cope with outages, faults and restarts without data loss.
• Design device software for easy deployment, configuration, updates and remote diagnosis.
• Collaborate with hardware, test and manufacturing engineers to turn physical processes into dependable software.
• Work with backend and platform teams to define APIs and data contracts between devices and services.
• Mentor teammates and share hardware-integration best practices.
• Identify opportunities to automate and instrument more of our physical processes.

Job description

Overview

As an engineer in the Internal Tooling team, you'll build the software that runs on our physical devices. That includes test stations, manufacturing rigs, lab equipment and the computers that control them. Your applications control and read from custom hardware and instruments, then reliably send that data to backend services where the rest of the company can use it.

Our users are our own colleagues, across engineering, manufacturing, and all other departments. Feedback loops are extremely fast; our work exists to enable the company to move faster and increase our resilience.

You'll work across hardware interfaces, device applications and backend integration. You should be comfortable picking up new protocols, devices and technologies as projects require.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design of applications and services that run on physical devices and talk to custom hardware and lab instruments
• Build reliable data pipelines from devices to backend APIs that cope with network outages, hardware faults and restarts without losing data
• Design device software for easy deployment, configuration, updates and remote diagnosis
• Work with hardware, test and manufacturing engineers to turn physical processes into dependable software
• Work with backend and platform teams to define APIs and data contracts between devices and services
• Mentor teammates and share hardware-integration best practices
• Look for opportunities to automate and instrument more of our physical processes

Requirements

• Strong proficiency in Python, C++ or similar (e.g. Rust, Go, C#)
• Experience writing software that talks to hardware over interfaces such as serial, USB, CAN, and Ethernet/TCP
• Experience building clients that send data to backend APIs (e.g. REST), including retries, buffering and offline operation
• Solid Linux experience: services (systemd), networking, permissions and device access
• Understanding of concurrency, async I/O and robust error handling in long-running applications
• Experience owning the full development lifecycle: requirements, design, implementation, testing, documentation and handover
• Comfortable with standard engineering practices: Git, code review, agile planning

Preferred Qualifications/Experience

• Embedded firmware or microcontroller development (e.g. STM32)
• Device fleet management: provisioning, over-the-air or remote updates, configuration management, device monitoring
• Containerised deployments on edge devices with Docker
• Testing hardware-dependent code: hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing, simulators and mocks
• Improving CI/CD pipelines, including cross-compilation and building device images
• Familiarity with backend storage and cloud services (e.g. Postgres, AWS S3, DynamoDB, Lambda)
• Simple operator UIs (e.g. tkinter, web-based local UIs, TypeScript)
• Using AI tools to speed up your work while keeping quality high and your own understanding solid
• Manufacturing, aerospace, or other hardware-focused industries
• Start-ups or other fast-paced engineering environments

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation and stock options
• Private Medical & Dental
• Cycle to work scheme
• Lunchtime catering on site

About Us

The mission of Cambridge Aerospace is to eliminate the risk of existential war in Europe. That risk comes from the air – low-cost drones and cruise missiles now manufactured in colossal volumes by our adversaries, ballistic missiles capable of ending the world as we know it, and a new generation of hypersonic weapons that evade every existing defence.

We're building low-cost interceptors that defeat these threats, and the surveillance systems to detect and target them – at a cost taxpayers can afford, at the pace the threat demands, and with sovereign supply chains that assure delivery.

We have immense backing from the world's best venture funds. We're one of the fastest-growing defence technology companies in history. And we're hiring the best engineers to prosecute the mission.

If you are in the top 1%, willing to work harder than you ever have, build technology better than anyone else, and contribute to the defining challenge of our time, now is the time to join us.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We're committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you're excited about this role but don't meet every requirement,