Rust Engineer - Edge Autonomy & Mission-Critical Systems

Defenseunicorns; United States; On-site; USD 148,750 - 201,250; Full time

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking a mission-driven Rust Software Engineer to build resilient systems enabling human-machine-AI collaboration for military operators at the tactical edge.

You will design high-performance Rust software for constrained environments, and contribute across architecture, hardware integration, simulation, and field deployment, ensuring traceable builds and reliable releases in mission-critical settings.

Qualifications

• Professional software engineering experience in embedded or firmware contexts.
• Strong proficiency in Rust; low-level/embedded or no_std is a bonus.
• Experience with microcontroller peripherals and hardware interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, USB, etc.).
• Familiarity with software design, debugging, profiling, and performance optimization.
• Knowledge of distributed systems, networking protocols (TCP/UDP, BLE/LoRa), encryption and trust systems.
• Good communication and cross-team collaboration skills.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain Top Secret / SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

• Design high-performance, distributed Rust software for cloud-native and edge environments.
• Contribute to system architecture, hardware evaluation, and reviews for existing and new systems.
• Develop software models supporting human-in-the-loop/autonomy workflows for distributed ops.
• Build deterministic build environments and configuration management for traceability.
• Implement OTA update mechanisms for fielded systems across VMs, containers, and embedded packages.
• Integrate software with microcontroller peripherals and hardware buses.
• Plan and execute Unit, SITL, HITL, and end-to-end tests for field readiness.
• Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to deploy and sustain systems.
• Optimize for performance, reliability, and power efficiency.

Skills

Rust

Embedded systems

Distributed systems

Networking

Security concepts

Debugging/profiling

Collaboration

Job description

Defense Unicorns is seeking a mission-driven Rust Software Engineer to build resilient systems enabling human-machine-AI collaboration for military operators at the tactical edge.

You will design high-performance Rust software for constrained environments, and contribute across architecture, hardware integration, simulation, and field deployment, ensuring traceable builds and reliable releases in mission-critical settings.