Vehicle Software Engineer

LinuxCareers; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

LinuxCareers is seeking a software engineer to own vehicle software architecture across onboard and ground systems, from design through flight testing and field operations.

You will build operator interfaces, mission planning, and fault-tolerant flight-control software, collaborating with hardware and control systems teams in a hands-on, production-oriented role.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on experience developing software for vehicles, robotics, or systems that interact with the physical world.
• Ownership of a software capability from design through integration, release, and ongoing support.
• Strong systems programming skills in Rust or C/C++, with willingness to work primarily in Rust and contribute to TypeScript-based interfaces.
• Experience developing and debugging software on Linux, including concurrent processes and hardware/flight-control interfaces.
• Ability to reason about distributed system state, timing, and failures; implement robust state machines and recovery paths.

Responsibilities

• Own vehicle software architecture, implementation, and maintenance across onboard computers and ground systems.
• Build operator interfaces and ground-station workflows for vehicle preparation and mission control.
• Develop mission planning and execution software that translates goals into validated flight paths and geofences.
• Design and validate arming checks, interlocks, and failsafe behaviors for loss of communication or degraded sensing.
• Integrate sensors and payloads with onboard software and flight-control systems; enable autonomous mission execution.

Skills

Rust

C/C++

Linux

Tools

React

TypeScript

Electron

PX4

MAVLink

Job description

The company is building autonomous vehicle and robotics systems. This role owns vehicle software capabilities spanning operator interfaces, onboard systems, mission planning, autonomy, and sensor integration. The engineer will design and maintain software across ground stations and flight-control systems, taking projects from architecture through flight testing and field operations.

What You’ll Do

• Own vehicle software architecture, implementation, and maintenance across onboard computers and ground systems with clear contracts for commands, telemetry, state, and failure behavior
• Build operator interfaces and ground-station workflows for vehicle preparation, preflight checks, mission control, health monitoring, and intervention
• Develop mission planning and execution software that translates operational goals into validated flight paths, geofences, and accounts for vehicle endurance
• Design and validate arming checks, interlocks, and failsafe behaviors for communication loss, degraded sensing, low power, and process failures
• Integrate sensors, cameras, and payloads with onboard software and flight-control systems; develop autonomy using sensing and vehicle state to execute missions and handle contingencies

What You Need

• 3+ years of hands-on experience developing software for vehicles, robotics, or systems that interact with the physical world, including production or field deployment
• Demonstrated ownership of a software capability from design through integration, release, and ongoing support with independent technical decision-making
• Strong systems programming skills in Rust or C/C++, with willingness to work primarily in Rust and contribute to TypeScript-based operator interfaces
• Experience developing and debugging software on Linux, including concurrent processes, network communication, and interfaces to hardware or flight-control systems
• Ability to reason about distributed system state, timing, and failures; implement robust state machines, fault detection, failsafes, and recovery paths

Nice to Have

• Experience deploying drones or autonomous robots and supporting real-world flight or field operations
• Familiarity with PX4, MAVLink, ground-control systems, or flight-critical software
• Experience building operator interfaces with React, TypeScript, or Electron, particularly mapping tools or geospatial mission-planning workflows
• Experience with sensor fusion, state estimation, path planning, or autonomous mission execution
• Experience integrating payloads, sensors, or embedded controllers over interfaces such as CAN, serial, or Ethernet