Senior Flight Software Engineer — Autonomy Systems

Merlinlabs; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, life insurance

Unlimited vacation

401k with match

On-site catering

Job summary

Merlin Labs in Boston, MA seeks a Staff Software Engineer to design, implement, test, and certify flight-critical autonomy algorithms for next-generation aerospace systems. You will develop model-based flight software using MATLAB/MathWorks tools and support DO-178C compliant development across the lifecycle.

The role emphasizes collaborative, cross-functional work, HIL/PIL testing assistance, and documenting software requirements, architecture, and decisions for certification readiness.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related fields.
• 10+ years of experience developing embedded or safety-critical software.
• Extensive experience with Simulink, Stateflow and Embedded Coder for safety critical software development.
• Experience with Simulink Check, Simulink Code Inspector, Simulink Test and Polyspace Bug Finder
• Strong experience with requirements management, including authoring high-quality software requirements, maintaining traceability, and using tools such as DOORS, Jama, or Polarion.
• Working knowledge of DO-178C, including hands-on experience with DO-331.
• Experience with CI/CD environments and automated model/code quality checks.
• Experience developing embedded flight software using C/C++ and integrating auto-generated code with manual code
• Experience performing HIL testing, automated test execution, troubleshooting integration issues and analysis of flight test data.
• Experience with MATLAB scripting, tool automation, and test automation

Responsibilities

• Design and develop flight-critical software using Simulink, Stateflow, and related MathWorks tools for model-based design.
• Define software architecture, modeling standards, and development workflows aligned with DO-178C and DO-331.
• Create, maintain and review software requirements, models and auto-generated code.
• Ensure robustness and traceability through requirements-based design, verification, and certification artifact production.
• Collaborate with engineers from cross functional groups such as systems, safety, hardware, flight controls, and flight test to ensure product and program level needs are met.
• Support integration into CI pipelines, including model checks, code generation, static analysis, and automated verification.
• Contribute to planning and execution of SOI audits and certification reviews.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for software requirements, architecture and design decisions
• Support hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), processor-in-the-loop (PIL), and flight testing activities.

Skills

Requirements management

C/C++ proficiency

Model-based design

Flight software experience

CI/CD practices

Test automation

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in EE/AE/CE/CS

Tools

Simulink

Stateflow

Embedded Coder

Simulink Check

Simulink Code Inspector

Simulink Test

Polyspace Bug Finder

DOORS

Jama

Polarion

MATLAB scripting

Job description

Merlin Labs in Boston, MA seeks a Staff Software Engineer to design, implement, test, and certify flight-critical autonomy algorithms for next-generation aerospace systems. You will develop model-based flight software using MATLAB/MathWorks tools and support DO-178C compliant development across the lifecycle.

The role emphasizes collaborative, cross-functional work, HIL/PIL testing assistance, and documenting software requirements, architecture, and decisions for certification readiness.