Mission Systems Software Lead – Multi‑Site & Flight‑Critical

InvestedintheMission; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 141,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401K with company matching

9/80 work schedule

Paid holiday shutdown

Job summary

AeroVironment, Inc. in San Diego seeks a Manager, Mission Systems Software to lead a large, multi-site team developing onboard mission systems software for uncrewed aircraft. You will guide strategy, growth, and delivery of vision-based navigation, autonomy, and flight software.

As a member of the Engineering management team, you will partner with the Software Chief Engineer on technical direction and ensure programs meet milestones, budgets, and quality standards.

Qualifications

• BS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related is required or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong background in embedded, robotics, or mission systems software development.
• At least 4+ years in a management or technical lead role, successfully leading a software team of 15 or more engineers.
• Experience delivering flight-critical or mission-critical software through a full development lifecycle, from requirements through integration, test, and deployment.
• Experienced with modern development and CI/CD tooling (e.g., Git/GitLab, CI pipelines, containerization) and Linux environments.

Responsibilities

• Manages a large, multi-site group of software engineers, including budget planning, staffing, training, performance evaluation and career development.
• Scales the team through rapid growth: drives hiring, onboarding, and the development of engineers into senior contributors and leads.
• Partners with the Software Chief Engineer to shape the mission systems software roadmap and priorities.
• Plans, coordinates, and directs software development projects across multiple programs.
• Works in an Agile environment to coordinate software development including scope, scheduling, resourcing, and block/release planning.
• Champions software quality through design reviews, requirements-based testing, code coverage, and disciplined branching and release practices.
• Guides the reuse of common software across programs to reduce sustainment burden and accelerate delivery.
• Partners with systems engineering, GNC, hardware, test, and program teams to align software with system requirements and integration and flight-test milestones.
• Frequently interacts with subordinate supervisors, customers and/or functional peer group managers, normally involving matters between functional areas.
• Establishes and assures adherence to budgets, schedules and work plans. Interacts with senior management.
• Other duties as assigned

Skills

Embedded software

Leadership

CI/CD tooling

Git/GitLab

Linux

Budget planning

Staffing

Education

BS in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Git/GitLab

CI pipelines

Containerization

Job description

AeroVironment, Inc. in San Diego seeks a Manager, Mission Systems Software to lead a large, multi-site team developing onboard mission systems software for uncrewed aircraft. You will guide strategy, growth, and delivery of vision-based navigation, autonomy, and flight software.

As a member of the Engineering management team, you will partner with the Software Chief Engineer on technical direction and ensure programs meet milestones, budgets, and quality standards.