Director of Flight Software

About The Company

We are a stealth-mode Aerospace & Defense startup headquartered in El Segundo, CA. Our founding team hails from SpaceX, Anduril, Northrop and Lockheed Martin, and we are backed by Joint Staff-level military leadership and several Silicon Valley firms. With a world-class business development & leadership team already in place, we are well positioned to capitalize on already overwhelming demand.

Purpose of the Position and The Opportunity

The Director of Software Engineering at our Start- up will own the architecture,

development, and delivery of embedded systems, controls software, command and control

software, sensor integration, and perception/computer vision across the company’s

integrated air defense system. This is not an oversight role from the sidelines—it requires

direct technical leadership, engineering rigor, and the ability to guide teams through the

hard problems of high performance, multi-disciplinary software development.

The scope covers the full software lifecycle: architecture, implementation, verification,

validation, and integration with hardware. The candidate will bring experience in safety-

critical and high-reliability systems and will thrive at the intersection of embedded

software, guidance and control, and systems integration. The work is hands-on, milestone-

driven, and tied directly to upcoming demonstrations that determine both technical success

and lives saved.

This is an opportunity to define the backbone of our start -ups capability. The ideal candidate

is motivated by building something enduring, not maintaining legacy programs.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute the strategic roadmap for software across multiple missile and
  
  

sensor platforms.

• Lead architecture, design, and testing of real-time embedded software running
  
  

advanced GNC and sensor fusion systems.

• Lead architecture, design, and testing of high performance computer vision and
  
  

perception software

• Manage architecture, design, and testing of radar, optical, and external sensor fusion
  
  

and command and control integration

• Establish and enforce engineering processes that ensure robust software-hardware
  
  

integration under aggressive timelines.

• Build, mentor, and scale a multidisciplinary team of software engineers and integration
  
  

specialists.

• Partner with leadership to align software deliverables with system-level performance
  
  

goals.

• Introduce and enforce best practices in safety-critical coding, testing, and
  
  

documentation.

• Ensure compliance with industry standards (DO-178C, MIL-STD-882) without slowing
  
  

iteration.

• Drive verification and validation campaigns including simulation, hardware-in-the-loop,
  
  

and live flight tests.

Critical Success Objectives

• Deliver software capability on a timeline aligned with full system demonstration.
• Build and maintain a software team that can scale from dozens to hundreds while
  
  

retaining engineering rigor.

• Drive integration across disciplines (software, hardware, systems) to close open issues
  
  

quickly.

• Establish a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and clarity in a startup
  
  

environment.

Skills And Competencies

• ~10 years of embedded software experience, with 5 in leadership roles.
• Deep technical background in real-time embedded systems within missiles, rockets,
  
  

robotics, or autonomous platforms.

• Expertise in GNC algorithms, RTOS, and fault-tolerant flight software
• Strong familiarity or
• Familiarity with C , Rust, Python, and model-based design.
• Proven track record of delivering complex programs on schedule.
• Capable of resource planning and proposal development for new programs.
• Strong communicator able to articulate technical complexity to executives, operators,
  
  

and engineers alike.

• Demonstrated ability to mentor junior engineers and build resilient teams.