What are the responsibilities and job description for the Fire Control Systems Software Engineer position at Stealth Mode?
About Us
We are a stealth-mode Aerospace & Defense startup headquartered in Gardena, CA. Our founding team hails from SpaceX, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin, and we are backed by Joint Staff-level military leadership and top-tier Silicon Valley firms. Our mission is urgent: to develop and deploy life-saving missile defense systems that can be fielded globally, today. We are assembling a high-agency team committed to moving fast, solving hard problems, and defending what matters most.
The Role
We are seeking a Fire Control Systems Software Engineer to design, build, integrate, and validate the software that sits between target cueing from command-and-control systems and the safe execution of weapon employment. This role is responsible for the software layer that ingests target and engagement data, evaluates engagement options, coordinates launcher/effector actions, enforces software-based safety constraints, and reports engagement status back into the broader mission system.
This is not a generic backend or application role. We are looking for an engineer who has worked on real mission-critical systems where timing, determinism, interface fidelity, and fail-safe behavior matter—ideally in missile defense, integrated air and missile defense, fire control, engagement planning, launcher/effector integration, combat systems, or closely related domains.
You will join a highly effective software team with strong execution and work ethic. Your unique value will be bringing hard-earned experience building software for government and military customers, and helping shape how we architect, test, document, and field fire control capability in a disciplined but fast-moving environment.
What You’ll Do
The strongest candidates have worked on software that did not merely visualize targets or simulate engagements, but actually connected command intent to controlled weapon-system behavior in a real operational or test environment. They understand how to design systems that are fast, deterministic, testable, operator-usable, and safe by construction.
They are comfortable living at the boundary between software, hardware, systems engineering, and field reality—and they know how to deliver credible capability to demanding government customers.
Why Join Us
You will work on high-consequence national security problems with a small, elite, execution-focused team. You will have unusual ownership, real technical influence, and the opportunity to help define the sensing architecture of a mission-critical defense system from the ground up.
Itar Requirements
We are a stealth-mode Aerospace & Defense startup headquartered in Gardena, CA. Our founding team hails from SpaceX, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin, and we are backed by Joint Staff-level military leadership and top-tier Silicon Valley firms. Our mission is urgent: to develop and deploy life-saving missile defense systems that can be fielded globally, today. We are assembling a high-agency team committed to moving fast, solving hard problems, and defending what matters most.
The Role
We are seeking a Fire Control Systems Software Engineer to design, build, integrate, and validate the software that sits between target cueing from command-and-control systems and the safe execution of weapon employment. This role is responsible for the software layer that ingests target and engagement data, evaluates engagement options, coordinates launcher/effector actions, enforces software-based safety constraints, and reports engagement status back into the broader mission system.
This is not a generic backend or application role. We are looking for an engineer who has worked on real mission-critical systems where timing, determinism, interface fidelity, and fail-safe behavior matter—ideally in missile defense, integrated air and missile defense, fire control, engagement planning, launcher/effector integration, combat systems, or closely related domains.
You will join a highly effective software team with strong execution and work ethic. Your unique value will be bringing hard-earned experience building software for government and military customers, and helping shape how we architect, test, document, and field fire control capability in a disciplined but fast-moving environment.
What You’ll Do
- Architect, implement, and test fire control and engagement management software that bridges sensors and C2 systems to launchers, interceptors, or other effectors.
- Develop core functionality such as track ingestion, target state handling, engagement state machines, weapon-target pairing, launcher/effector command sequencing, inhibit/arm/fire logic, and post-launch status management.
- Design software interfaces and message flows across radar/sensor systems, C2 nodes, launchers, effectors, simulators, and operator-facing mission software.
- Build deterministic, fault-tolerant behavior under tight timing and reliability constraints, including degraded modes, interlocks, watchdogs, and safe-state transitions.
- Translate mission and system-level requirements into clear software behavior, interface definitions, and testable acceptance criteria.
- Partner closely with systems engineering, hardware, integration/test, simulation, GNC, and product teams to deliver end-to-end capability.
- Contribute to verification and validation through SIL/HIL/HWIL environments, Monte Carlo analysis, integration labs, ground test, and live or operational test events.
- Participate in requirements reviews, design reviews, hazard analyses, FMEAs, test readiness reviews, and customer technical interchange meetings.
- Help establish engineering best practices for safety-critical and customer-facing defense software, including traceability, release discipline, field issue triage, and root-cause analysis.
- Mentor other engineers and elevate the team’s understanding of fire control architectures, government program rigor, and mission-driven development.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 6 years of experience developing mission-critical, real-time, embedded, or distributed software systems in defense, aerospace, robotics, autonomy, or similarly demanding environments.
- Demonstrated experience building software that operates in or near the chain from target cueing and engagement planning through effector or launcher execution.
- Strong proficiency in C and Python; working knowledge of Java, Rust, or Ada is a plus.
- Experience developing on Linux and comfort working in mixed software/hardware integration environments.
- Experience with real-time messaging, low-latency communications, and distributed system coordination (e.g. DDS, UDP, TCP, ZeroMQ, CAN, or similar).
- Experience owning software through design, implementation, integration, test, and field/debug cycles.
- Ability to reason about timing-sensitive systems, concurrency, interface contracts, and failure modes.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to work directly with cross-functional teams and external stakeholders.
- U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.
- Direct experience with fire control, battle management, engagement planning, weapon system integration, launcher control, interceptor systems, C-UAS, integrated air and missile defense, or naval combat systems.
- Experience building software for DoD, IC, or allied military customers in classified or restricted environments.
- Familiarity with software and systems safety practices such as hazard analysis, safety interlocks, fail-safe design, arming/inhibit logic, and verification of safety requirements.
- Familiarity with standards and processes such as MIL-STD-882E, interface control documentation, requirements traceability, and formal verification/validation workflows.
- Experience with hardware-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop, lab integration, range events, flight test, or live-fire test support.
- Experience with sensor fusion, tracking, state estimation, guidance/control-adjacent systems, or kinematic/physics-based decision logic.
- Experience with DevSecOps and CI/CD tooling in regulated or classified environments (e.g. Git/GitLab, Jenkins, Ansible, Jira, Confluence).
- Familiarity with open architectures or defense integration patterns such as OMS/UCI, FACE, or similar modular mission-system approaches.
- Active Secret or Top Secret clearance.
The strongest candidates have worked on software that did not merely visualize targets or simulate engagements, but actually connected command intent to controlled weapon-system behavior in a real operational or test environment. They understand how to design systems that are fast, deterministic, testable, operator-usable, and safe by construction.
They are comfortable living at the boundary between software, hardware, systems engineering, and field reality—and they know how to deliver credible capability to demanding government customers.
Why Join Us
You will work on high-consequence national security problems with a small, elite, execution-focused team. You will have unusual ownership, real technical influence, and the opportunity to help define the sensing architecture of a mission-critical defense system from the ground up.
Itar Requirements
- To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C.
- 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C.
- 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.