Senior UAV Flight Control Software Engineer

Knightwerx; Scottsdale (AZ); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Knightwerx seeks a Senior Embedded Software Engineer for Small UAV Flight Controls to architect, develop, and test deterministic, safety-critical flight control firmware for our small unmanned aerial vehicles. You will own the software layer between guidance algorithms and actuation, ensuring maximum stability, agility, and responsiveness on lightweight hardware.

You will bridge control theory and low-SWaP bare-metal or RTOS execution, writing robust, high-integrity code to minimize latency and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience with ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers and related peripherals.
• Hands-on experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and JTAG/SWD debuggers.

Responsibilities

• Flight Software & Driver Development: Design, optimize, and implement high-rate stabilization loops, attitude control algorithms, and actuator mixing logic in C and C++.
• Low-Level Drivers: Develop and maintain bare-metal peripheral drivers for microcontrollers to interface with IMUs, magnetometers, barometers, airspeed sensors, and GPS modules.
• RTOS Optimization: Configure and profile Real-Time Operating Systems for predictable task scheduling and minimal jitter.
• Bus Architecture: Manage CAN/UAVCAN, SPI, I2C, UART to interface with ESCs and servos.
• Fault Tolerance: Implement robust fault detection, isolation, and recovery mechanisms for UAV anomalies.
• HIL Testing: Build Hardware-in-the-Loop setups to validate flight software performance.
• Resource Management: Optimize memory and CPU usage on high-performance microcontrollers.
• Open-Source Hardening: Maintain/port PX4, ArduPilot, or Betaflight for custom hardware.

Skills

ARM Cortex-M

Real-Time Control

C/C++

Deterministic RTOS experience

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Robotics

Tools

FreeRTOS

ChibiOS

Zephyr

JTAG/SWD debugging

Oscilloscopes

Job description

Knightwerx seeks a Senior Embedded Software Engineer for Small UAV Flight Controls to architect, develop, and test deterministic, safety-critical flight control firmware for our small unmanned aerial vehicles. You will own the software layer between guidance algorithms and actuation, ensuring maximum stability, agility, and responsiveness on lightweight hardware.

You will bridge control theory and low-SWaP bare-metal or RTOS execution, writing robust, high-integrity code to minimize latency and