Principal Software Architect

Stark Defence; Germany (OH); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Impactful projects

Career growth opportunities

Innovative work environment

Job summary

A leading defence technology company is seeking a Principal Software Architect to provide strategic oversight in integrating hardware and software systems. This high-impact role requires extensive experience in technical leadership, effective communication, and the ability to guide diverse engineering teams. Candidates should hold a background in aerospace or defense and be eligible for security clearance to contribute effectively. The firm emphasizes safety and adherence to NATO standards while developing innovative unmanned systems.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in technical leadership with a focus on system architecture.
• Ability to guide diverse engineering teams towards a common goal.
• Must be eligible for security clearance due to project requirements.

Responsibilities

• Align architectural vision across software and hardware engineering.
• Ensure compliance with NATO standards to facilitate interoperability.
• Mentor and guide teams through technical challenges.

Skills

Systems Thinker

Strong verbal and written communication skills

Ability to manage conflicts with emotional intelligence

Technical authority in hardware/software integration

Safety-oriented mindset

Education

Background in Aerospace, Defense, Robotics or complex Hardware/Software systems

10+ years of experience in engineering roles

Tools

C++

MAVLink/Silvus

Job description

About Us

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionizing the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective. We’re focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems—not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies to deter aggression—today.

Qualifications

• A Technical Diplomat:You have 10+ years of experience, with significant time spent in "Principal" or "Staff" roles where your primary output was decisions, documents, and diagrams rather than PRs.

• High EQ Leader:You excel at reading the room. You know when to push a standard and when to compromise for speed. You can deliver critical feedback to a Senior Staff Engineer without shutting them down.

• Systems Thinker:You take a systems engineering approach to challenges, with experience breaking down complex technical challenges across technical domains and driving holistic solutions.

• Domain Polymath:You are comfortable discussing PID tuning with a Control Engineer in the morning and eventual consistency with a Backend Engineer in the afternoon.

Qualifications

• Background in Aerospace, Defense, Robotics or complex Hardware/Software systems.

• Proven experience acting as an architect across multiple engineering teams

• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• Security:Due to the nature of our work, candidates must be eligible to obtain appropriate security clearance.

• Why Join STARK?

  • Impact:You are defining the nervous system of next-generation defense. Your decisions determine the lethality and survivability of our platforms.

  • Autonomy:You are the technical authority connecting the "Sky" (Drones) to the "Ground" (C2).

  • Growth:Lead the technical strategy for a rapidly expanding portfolio of air and sea systems.

Recruiter for this position

For further information please reach out to [e-mail].

Your mission

This is not a standard engineering role; it is a high-impact leadership position at the intersection of hardware, software, and human factors. We have world-class architects leading separate workstreams across C2, Perception, and Autonomy. Your mission is to align them with mission priorities. You will be thePrincipal Software Architect, responsible for navigating these individual architects and unifying them under a general architectural vision for Stark. You will provide the Systems Engineering rigor necessary to ensure that our unified architecture is actually fit for the complex requirements of our customers.

Responsibilities

1. Architectural Alignment

• A Guiding Hand:You will be the senior interface between Software Group and Hardware Programme engineering leadership to formulate and breakdown Software requirements, guiding stakeholders towards common cross-platform solutions which can be adopted across the portfolio.

• Bridge the Silos:You will proactively identify, derisk and resolve the inevitable conflicts between hardware limitations and software ambitions.

• Navigate Technical Egos:You will work with deeply specialized subject matter experts. You will synthesize sometimes conflicting requirements into a consensus that serves the mission and delivers on customer requirements, managing strong opinions with emotional intelligence and technical authority.

• Conway’s Law Management:You will ensure our system architecture drives our organizational structure, not the other way around. You will spot communication gaps between teams and design interventions that force collaboration.

2. Strategic Technical Governance

• The "Safety by Design" Culture:You will champion the adoption of Modern C++ Safety Guidelines (MISRA). You will not just enforce rules; you will mentor teams onwhysafety matters, shifting the culture from "move fast and break things" to "move fast and build reliable systems."

• Pragmatic Compliance:You will own the strategy for technical compliance. You will guide the implementation of necessary NATO standards (like STANAG 4586) to ensure interoperability, while ruthlessly cutting bureaucratic overhead that slows down development.

• Architectural Integrity:You are the guardian of our architectural principles. You will define and govern the interfaces that bind our hardware platforms to the ground station, ensuring that a change in the autopilot firmware doesn't break mission operations.

3. Mentorship & Vision

• Guide, Don't Command:You will lead through influence. You will run Design Reviews that empower leads to make decisions while ensuring they align with the broader system vision.

• Change Management:As we scale, you will guide the architecture through necessary refactors. You will help teams navigate the pain of technical debt repayment and process maturity without killing their startup spirit.

The Tech Landscape

You must possess the technical curiosity to earn the respect of experts, even if you aren't writing production code daily.

• The Stack:Understanding of how data flows from a sensor on a drone over a constrained radio link (MAVLink/Silvus), to a ground station (C++)

• Language Strategy:A firm commitment toC++as our core language, with a focus on safety and standardization rather than experimental rewriting.

• System Constraints:An intuitive grasp ofSWaP-C(Size, Weight, Power, and Cost) and how software decisions impact hardware endurance and performance.