Senior Staff Software Engineer

Summary

Join SandboxAQ's AI/Quantum Navigation team as a highly accomplished Senior Staff Software Engineer. You will lead and mentor a team, design and implement robust real-time avionics-grade software for the AQNav magnetic navigation system, and ensure compliance with DO-178 certification. Responsibilities include owning the software lifecycle, integrating with external systems, automating processes, and driving process improvements. You will collaborate with physicists, engineers, and other experts. The role requires significant experience in software development, avionics software certification, and strong expertise in Python and C/C++. US citizenship and a DOD Secret clearance are required.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent field of study
• 10+ years of postgraduate experience working software development (preferred), data science, systems engineering, robotics, systems analysis, or other related fields
• U.S. Citizenship is required due to US government contract requirements
• Must be able to obtain and hold a DOD Secret level security clearance
• Experience working on industry fielded software solutions certified avionics software systems (e.g. DO-178); a successful candidate will leverage this experience to advise the AQNav team on best practices to ensure successful software certification
• Strong expertise in both Python and C/C++. Experience with other languages (Java, HTML/CSS, Rust, Bash scripting, etc. preferred)
• Proficiency in software development methodologies and best practices (e.g., Agile practices, CI/CD, test-driven development.)
• Ability to diagram and specify requirements at system, subsystem, and component levels to aid in the finalization of design decisions; this includes responsibility for design documentation such as software architecture, software specification documents, and testing plans
• Ability to work closely with other software development and cross-functional team members
• Strong Linux fundamentals (bash scripting, operating system configuration) and familiarity with common developer and devops tools such as Ansible, Chef, Terraform, Git, Github, and the Atlassian suite tools Jira and Confluence
• Long, successful history of bringing software from initial conception through to architecture, development, testing, release into production, and maintenance
• Willing and able to travel both within the continental US and internationally as required (less than 20% of the time) to support customer engagements, meet with contracting partners, and attend customer product demonstrations

Responsibilities

• Serve as a technical expert to guide, lead, and mentor a growing team of engineers to support successful development and deployment of our full-stack software
• Work scope will include tasks such as development/maintenance of internal tooling and libraries, integrating the AQNav system with external avionics systems, automating and streamlining routine complex processes
• Own roadmaps for developing long-term stable software requirements, verification/validation, and software solutions for unique realworld aerospace challenges
• Identify gaps and advocate for process improvements throughout the software development lifecycle
• Drive compliance of AQNav real-time software to DO-178 certification, while upholding quality and efficiency standards for the team, including acting as a software interface between the AQNav team and government certification authorities (e.g. Mil, FAA, EASA, etc)
• Serve as the liaison between AQNav software engineering team and third-party software engineering partners or suppliers
• Design and Planning : In partnership with your AQNav software engineering colleagues, you will take ownership of significant portions of the realtime software stack. You will help with planning and prioritization by assessing both current and longer term software needs, breaking plans down into a series of manageable tasks, and resolving competing priorities
• Implement: You will execute on your plans by carrying your ideas through from conception to completion, using test-driven development (TDD) to ensure your software is fully validated as it’s being created
• Testing : You will ensure all testing is automated to the greatest extent possible by developing tools for automating repetitive tasks and tools for assessing system performance, monitoring system behavior, and identifying areas for optimization
• Communicate: As a senior member of the software and infrastructure subteam, you will regularly communicate progress on your various efforts and give team presentations on newly developed tools and technologies when applicable/appropriate. You will also thoroughly document your work in appropriate forums, including code comments and Confluence wiki pages

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Software Engineering, Computer Science or equivalent experience
• Equivalent experience includes tech leadership in a complex space, driving technical design and execution cross-collaboratively across multiple teams and organizations
• Experience working with one or more Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) such as SafeRTOS, RT Linux, RedHawk, and/or VxWorks (SafeRTOS preferred)
• Experience with software development and interfaces on the cloud (e.g. GCP, AWS)
• Knowledge of best practices for the U.S. Department of Defense and/or the Intelligence Community

Benefits

• Medical/dental/vision
• Family planning/fertility
• PTO (summer and winter breaks)
• Financial wellness resources
• 401(k) plans
• Competitive salaries
• Stock options depending on employment type
• Generous learning opportunities