Mission Systems Software Leader — Autonomy & Flight

AeroVironment, Inc.; Northern, San Diego (KY, CA); Hybrid; USD 141,000 - 215,000; Full time

Job summary

AeroVironment, Inc. seeks a Manager, Mission Systems Software to lead a large, multi-site team delivering onboard mission systems software for uncrewed aircraft. You will drive software strategy, architecture, and delivery across vision-based navigation, autonomy, and flight software.

You will partner with the Software Chief Engineer, manage budgets and staffing, mentor engineers, and scale the team to meet rapid program growth in a fast-paced defense environment.

Qualifications

• BS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 12+ years of software engineering experience 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.
• 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.
• Attracts and retains high caliber staff and provides mentorship
• Scales the team through rapid growth: drives hiring, onboarding, and the development of engineers into senior contributors and leads to keep pace with expanding program demand
• Partners with the Software Chief Engineer to shape the mission systems software roadmap and priorities, spanning vision-based navigation, autonomy, cooperative behaviors, and onboard flight software
• 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

Robotics

Mission systems software

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related

Tools

Git/GitLab

CI pipelines

Containerization

Linux environments

Job description

AeroVironment, Inc. seeks a Manager, Mission Systems Software to lead a large, multi-site team delivering onboard mission systems software for uncrewed aircraft. You will drive software strategy, architecture, and delivery across vision-based navigation, autonomy, and flight software.

You will partner with the Software Chief Engineer, manage budgets and staffing, mentor engineers, and scale the team to meet rapid program growth in a fast-paced defense environment.