Robotics Software Architect & Technical Lead

AeroVironment, Inc.; Simi Valley (CA); On-site; USD 147,000 - 224,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

401K

9/80 schedule

Holiday shutdown

Job summary

AeroVironment, Inc. is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to develop software for controlling advanced robotic platforms. You will own architectural direction across the Kinesis ecosystem, work with hardware and software teams, and mentor junior engineers while delivering features on schedule.

Responsibilities include designing SDKs, leading customer programs, and performing field tests to validate new capabilities. Occasional travel to customer sites may be required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Math, or Physics, with 12+ years of relevant experience.
• Strong fluency in modern C++, maintainable software architecture, and modular system design.
• Experience translating design tradeoffs into clear system requirements.
• Hands-on knowledge of CMake or similar build systems.
• Experience developing software for mechatronic or hardware-integrated systems.
• Knowledge of computer networking topologies, protocols, and principles.

Responsibilities

• Software development supporting AV’s vision-based navigation, autonomy, cooperative behaviors, and mission systems roadmap.
• Drive technical direction and architectural decisions across the Kinesis ecosystem.
• Design, implement, and integrate systems in C++ and Kotlin.
• Develop cross-platform apps for Android, Linux, and Windows to control robotic platforms.
• Design SDK interfaces for internal and external integration with AV systems.
• Serve as a technical lead for customer programs and mentor engineers.
• Perform hands-on field testing with robots to validate new features.

Skills

C++ proficiency

Software architecture

System design

Mentoring

Customer interaction

AI tooling

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering/CS/EE/Math/Physics

12+ years experience

Tools

CMake

Docker

CI/CD (GitLab)

gRPC

FastDDS

MQTT networking

Job description

AeroVironment, Inc. is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to develop software for controlling advanced robotic platforms. You will own architectural direction across the Kinesis ecosystem, work with hardware and software teams, and mentor junior engineers while delivering features on schedule.

Responsibilities include designing SDKs, leading customer programs, and performing field tests to validate new capabilities. Occasional travel to customer sites may be required.