Senior PX4 Drone Autonomy Engineer

Blackwing; El Segundo, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Rainmaker in El Segundo, CA is seeking a seasoned software engineer with drone autonomy expertise to join our autonomous fleets and weather platform. You will own development of the drone autonomy stack and contribute to PX4 firmware customization for advanced flight behaviors.

We value hands-on engineers who can ship production code in Rust, C++, or Python, and who are comfortable with embedded targets (ESP32, RP2040) and real-time middleware. Relocation to California is encouraged.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience developing software for PX4/ArduPilot systems.
• Experience shipping production code in Rust, plus C++ or Python.
• Experience developing firmware for ESP32, RP2040, or similar embedded targets.
• Familiarity with CAN, UART, I2C and SPI buses.
• Knowledge of real-time pub/sub middleware (Zenoh, DDS, ROS 2, MQTT, or similar).
• Working knowledge of MAVLink and autopilot integration patterns.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to drone autonomy software stack end-to-end as a domain expert.
• Modify and extend PX4 firmware for custom use cases and flight behaviors.
• Develop firmware for embedded systems across power, peripherals, and sensing.
• Support simulation-based testing in Gazebo, HITL, and SITL environments.
• Assist with flight test support, log analysis, and software debugging.

Skills

PX4/ArduPilot systems

Rust programming

C++ programming

Python programming

Embedded firmware development

CAN/UART/I2C/SPI

Real-time middleware (Zenoh, ROS 2, MQ

MAVLink knowledge

Tools

ESP32

RP2040

Gazebo

HITL

SITL

Job description

Rainmaker in El Segundo, CA is seeking a seasoned software engineer with drone autonomy expertise to join our autonomous fleets and weather platform. You will own development of the drone autonomy stack and contribute to PX4 firmware customization for advanced flight behaviors.

We value hands-on engineers who can ship production code in Rust, C++, or Python, and who are comfortable with embedded targets (ESP32, RP2040) and real-time middleware. Relocation to California is encouraged.