Lead Software Engineer - Aircraft

Manna Air Delivery; Dublin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Manna is building world-changing drone delivery technology in Dublin, Ireland, delivering food, groceries, and more from local stores to doors within minutes. As Lead Software Engineer on the Aircraft team, you will shape long-term architecture for onboard systems and mentor senior engineers across the software organization.

You will drive high-stakes multi-project delivery, balance near-term needs with long-term health, and partner with Hardware, Autonomy, Operations, and Aviation stakeholders

Qualifications

• 8-12+ years of professional software engineering in embedded or safety-critical systems.
• Deep expertise in C++ and Embedded C/C++; Python experience beneficial.
• Track record defining architecture across hardware-adjacent software environments.
• Experience leading design reviews, risk assessments, and incidents in high-reliability contexts.

Responsibilities

• Define architecture for aircraft onboard software and firmware.
• Set standards for reliability, performance, and scalability across aircraft systems.
• Lead multi-team architectural decisions and design reviews for critical components.
• Mentor senior engineers and drive technical leadership across the software org.

Skills

Embedded software

C/C++

Python

Technical leadership

Architecture design

Safety-critical systems

Mentoring

Design reviews

Tools

ArduPilot/PX4

ROS/ROS2

Embedded platforms

Power management

Job description

At Manna, we're changing how the world receives things - by taking delivery to the skies.

Our mission is simple but ambitious: to make high-speed suburban delivery affordable, green, and safe. We design and build our own aviation-grade drones that deliver food, coffee, groceries, and more — directly from local stores and vendors to people's doors in just a few minutes.

We're a team that Drive with Impact, are Safety Focused, and knows that the best ideas come from Team Players who show up as their Authentic Selves. We move fast, we are passionate about what we do, and we're always pushing a growth mindset to be better - in everything we do.

If you want to build world-changing technology with real-world impact (and have a bit of fun while doing it), you'll love it here.

Welcome to Manna - where we deliver the future.

Role Purpose

As the Lead Software Engineer on the Aircraft team, you will drive the technical strategy for onboard and embedded aircraft systems. You'll set long-term architecture direction, lead high-stakes multi-project delivery, and mentor senior engineers across the wider software organisation.

This role is ideal for someone who is equally comfortable going deep on embedded/robotics software and stepping back to shape systems, standards, and teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the architecture for aircraft onboard software and supporting firmware.
• Set standards for reliability, performance, and scalability across aircraft systems.
• Contribute to architectural decisions that span multiple teams (e.g., Aircraft Airspace QA).
• Lead design reviews for critical components, ensuring high-confidence deployment in safety-critical environments.
• Ensure roadmap execution while balancing near-term operational needs with long-term system health.
• Own risk management, rollout strategy, incident learnings, and continuous improvement for aircraft software.
• Partner closely with Hardware, Autonomy, Operations, and Aviation stakeholders.
• Mentor senior engineers and grow technical leadership depth on the team.
• Provide day-to-day technical leadership and coaching to software engineers.
• Support hiring and onboarding to grow team capacity.

Skills & Education

• 8-12+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant time spent on embedded, robotics, or safety-critical systems.
• Deep expertise in C++ and Embedded C/C++; strong systems-level Python experience beneficial.
• Track record defining architecture across complex, hardware-adjacent software environments.
• Demonstrated technical leadership across multiple complex projects, including setting architecture direction and owning delivery outcomes. Experience working in safety-critical domains such as aviation, aerospace, robotics, automotive, or industrial systems.
• Strong debugging instincts across software hardware boundaries.
• History of mentoring senior engineers; people-management, growing technical capability across teams.
• Experience leading design reviews, risk assessments, and incident learnings in high-reliability environments.
• Experience with autonomy, avionics, drones, robotics, or real-time control systems.
• Familiarity with flight stacks (ArduPilot/PX4), ROS/ROS2, or equivalent embedded platforms.
• Experience with power systems, battery management, charging firmware, or similar hardware-integrated domains.
• Background in safety cases or reliability engineering for operational systems.

This role is based in Dublin, Ireland.