Sr. System Engineer | Defence

Zoid Technologies Private Limited; Dadri; On-site; INR 3,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

ZOID Technologies Private Limited is seeking a senior software engineer to design end-to-end architectures for defense applications, including autonomous UAV/UGV systems, swarming, GNSS-denied navigation, and perception pipelines. You will work inside ArduPilot and PX4 codebases, develop companion computer software, and ensure robust integration with sensors and flight controllers.

You will also establish coding standards, review processes, CI practices, and defense-grade documentation, aligning

Qualifications

• 6 to 10 years of software engineering experience in embedded or defense software.
• Demonstrated experience designing software architectures for real-time or mission-critical systems.
• Deep Linux proficiency and experience with MAVLink, SITL/HITL, and flight-log analysis.

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end software architectures for defense applications across multiple system types.
• Develop autonomous UAV/UGV software including swarming, GNSS-denied navigation, and perception pipelines.
• Set up SITL/HITL testing environments and analyze flight logs for debugging and tuning.
• Integrate with hardware sensors and flight controllers via MAVLink; work with ArduPilot and PX4 source code.

Skills

C++

Python

Linux

Embedded systems

Real-time systems

Software architecture

MAVLink

Education

B.Tech / M.Tech in Computer Science, Electronics, Aerospace

Tools

ArduPilot

PX4

ROS/ROS2

DDS middleware

GStreamer

CUDA/TensorRT

Job description

ZOID's systems software team builds the software that makes defense hardware think, communicate, and act. Our products include ship-launched UAV systems that protect naval vessels from anti-ship missiles, AI-powered detection platforms deployed on airfields and marine vessels, electronic warfare systems, and multi-drone platforms that coordinate autonomously in contested and GNSS-denied environments.

ZOID's systems software team builds the software that makes defense hardware think, communicate, and act. Our products include ship-launched UAV systems that protect naval vessels from anti-ship missiles, AI-powered detection platforms deployed on airfields and marine vessels, electronic warfare systems, and multi-drone platforms that coordinate autonomously in contested and GNSS-denied environments.

What You'll Do

Software Architecture and Engineering Documentation

This Is Your First And Most Critical Responsibility. You Will Design End-to-end Software Architectures For Defense Applications Across a Range Of System Types

• Multi-drone swarm platforms requiring coordinated autonomy, inter-vehicle communication, and mission-level decision logic.
• High-compute AI inference servers deployed on marine vessels or ground vehicles, with constraints on power, thermal management, and ruggedization.
• Software systems that interface with or integrate into third-party defense platforms such as shipborne combat management systems, requiring strict protocol compliance and middleware interoperability.
• Ground control stations and operator HMIs that tie together telemetry, command/control, health monitoring, and tactical displays.

For each system, you will define the full software stack: application logic, inter-process communication, networking topology, OS-level configuration, security hardening, and deployment strategy.

You will also produce engineering documentation to defense standards. The primary standard is IEEE/ISO/IEC 12207 (software lifecycle processes) with IEEE 29148 (requirements engineering). Familiarity with or willingness to learn adjacent standards is expected. Relevant standards include DO-178C, MIL-STD-498, & STANAG 4586.

You will establish and enforce coding standards, code review processes, version control workflows, and CI/build practices for the software team.

Autonomous UAV and UGV Software

This is a major area of responsibility. ZOID develops multi-rotor drones and ground vehicles for defense missions including surveillance, electronic warfare, ship protection, and kinetic strike.

You Will

• Work deep inside ArduPilot and PX4 codebases. This means reading, understanding, and modifying the core source. You should be able to add custom flight modes, modify the EKF configuration, write custom failsafe logic, integrate non-standard sensors and payloads, and build features that the upstream firmware does not support.
• Develop companion computer software that runs alongside the flight controller, handling tasks like onboard perception, mission-level decision making, payload control, and communication relay.
• Implement multi-drone swarming logic: inter-vehicle coordination, formation control, task allocation, deconfliction, and distributed decision-making across a fleet.
• Implement GNSS-denied navigation using alternative sensing (visual-inertial odometry, optical flow, terrain-relative navigation, or similar).
• Work with MAVLink protocol extensively for communication between flight controllers, companion computers, ground control stations, and operator interfaces. This includes custom MAVLink message definitions where needed.
• Set up and maintain SITL and HITL simulation environments for testing autonomous behaviors before flight. Analyze flight logs for debugging and tuning.
• Integrate with and configure sensor payloads: gimbal cameras, EO/IR sensors, GNSS receivers, range finders, LIDAR, and communication modules.

Hardware and Sensor Integration

• Interface with GNSS receivers, inertial measurement units (IMUs), industrial cameras, thermal/IR cameras, LIDAR, rangefinders, communication radios, flight controllers, gimbal systems, and other peripherals.
• For generic hardware (e.g., USB cameras, standard GNSS modules, common IMUs): use and contribute to open-source drivers, configure kernel modules, and write integration layers.
• For specialized hardware (e.g., Basler/FLIR industrial cameras, Veronte autopilots, military-grade radios): work with manufacturer SDKs, understand vendor-specific APIs and protocols, and build robust wrappers that isolate vendor dependencies from the rest of the system.
• Communicate over serial protocols (UART, SPI, I2C, RS-232, RS-422)
• Read datasheets and technical reference manuals, coordinate with hardware engineers, and debug issues that live at the hardware-software boundary.

Linux Systems, Networking, and Infrastructure

• Provision, configure, and harden Linux (Ubuntu) OS images for field-deployed systems: secure boot, minimal attack surface, automated provisioning, systemd service management, user/permission lockdown.
• Implement process management: watchdog timers, heartbeat monitoring, automatic service restart, graceful shutdown sequencing, zombie process management.
• Write robust bash scripts for system configuration, network management, service orchestration, and deployment automation.
• Implement DDS middleware for real-time pub/sub communication in distributed defense systems, including domain partitioning, QoS policy configuration, and topic architecture.
• Build TCP/UDP socket communication, RTSP video streaming pipelines, and mesh networking for multi-node systems.
• Implement IEEE 1588 PTP and NTP time synchronization across distributed nodes where timing accuracy is operationally critical.

Required Qualifications

• 6 to 10 years of software engineering experience, with the majority in systems-level, embedded, robotics, autonomous systems, or defense software.
• Expert-level C++: memory management, concurrency, multi-threading, performance optimization. Production-level Python for automation, prototyping, and scripting.
• Demonstrated experience designing software architectures for real-time or mission-critical systems: module decomposition, IPC, state machines, data flow, and deployment topology.
• Deep Linux proficiency: system, process management, networking stack, shell scripting, OS-level debugging.
• Hands-on experience with ArduPilot or PX4 source code: reading, modifying, and building the codebase. Understanding of MAVLink, SITL/HITL, companion computer integration, flight log analysis, and custom flight mode development.
• Socket-level network programming (TCP/UDP). Experience with at least one pub/sub middleware.
• Experience building multi-threaded and multi-process systems on multi-core and/or multi-GPU hardware.
• Ability to produce defense-grade engineering documentation to IEEE 12207 or demonstrated aptitude to learn.
• Self-directed. Capable of picking up unfamiliar SDKs, sensor hardware, or large codebases and becoming productive without close supervision.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience deploying ML inference pipelines on edge hardware (Jetson, NUC) or server hardware (multi-GPU, TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, CUDA).
• DDS middleware implementation including QoS configuration and domain architecture.
• Hardware integration experience: sensor bring-up, serial protocols (UART, SPI, I2C, RS-422), industrial camera SDKs (Basler, FLIR, Allied Vision).
• ROS / ROS2 with real robot or drone deployments.
• GStreamer / RTSP video pipeline development.
• GNSS receiver integration and protocols (NMEA, UBX).
• IEEE 1588 PTP / NTP time synchronization implementation.
• Familiarity with defense software standards (DO-178C, MIL-STD-498, STANAG 4586).
• Multi-drone swarming, formation control, or multi-agent coordination systems.
• Contributions to open-source projects (ArduPilot, PX4, ROS, or equivalent).
• Previous employment at a defense organization: DRDO, HAL, BEL, defense startup, or equivalent.

Education

• B.Tech / M.Tech in Computer Science, Electronics, Aerospace, or related discipline preferred. Equivalent demonstrable experience accepted.

Skills: defense,architecture,documentation,software