Senior Manager, Autonomous Mission Software

AeroVironment, Inc.; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 141,000 - 215,000; Full time

Job summary

AeroVironment, Inc. seeks a Sr Manager, Mission Systems Software to lead a large, multi-site team of engineers building onboard mission systems software for uncrewed aircraft.

You will guide technical direction with the Software Chief Engineer and drive growth, staffing, and program commitments. The role requires deep embedded/robotics expertise, proven leadership, and experience delivering mission-critical software through full lifecycle processes.

Qualifications

• BS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong background 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.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling a software team through a period of rapid growth.
• Experience delivering flight-critical or mission-critical software through a full development lifecycle, from requirements through integration, test, and deployment.
• 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

Engineering leadership

CI/CD tooling

Linux environments

Agile development

Staff mentoring

Cross-functional

Budget planning

Staff recruitment

Systems integration

Education

BS in Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering

Tools

Git/GitLab

CI pipelines

Containerization

Linux environments

Job description

AeroVironment, Inc. seeks a Sr Manager, Mission Systems Software to lead a large, multi-site team of engineers building onboard mission systems software for uncrewed aircraft.

You will guide technical direction with the Software Chief Engineer and drive growth, staffing, and program commitments. The role requires deep embedded/robotics expertise, proven leadership, and experience delivering mission-critical software through full lifecycle processes.