About this role
About Us <p style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span style="font-size:14px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionizing the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective. This provides our operators with a decisive edge in highly contested environments.</span></p><p style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span style="font-size:14px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">We're focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems - not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe - today.</span></p> About the team <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;text-transform:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline;">We move fast, ship real software, and operate under constraints most engineers never encounter — low-bandwidth networks, air-gapped devices, high-stakes decision loops. There is no room for abstraction for its own sake. Everything we build ends up in the hands of real operators in the field</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Inter, '-apple-system', BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Open Sans', 'system-ui', '-apple-system', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji';font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;text-transform:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline;">.</span><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Inter, '-apple-system', BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Open Sans', 'system-ui', '-apple-system', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji';font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;text-transform:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline;">Our Team is dedicated to a mission of pure strikes.</span> Your mission As a <strong>Senior Software Engineer</strong> with a focus on Aerial Swarming, you will play a critical role in enabling real-time cooperative autonomy onboard next-generation multi-UAV platforms. You will work directly with decentralized routing networks, ROS2-based systems, and embedded compute platforms to build robust, efficient, and scalable swarming functionality.<br><br>You will contribute as a highly skilled individual contributor—hands-on with the system—bridging diverse codebases, optimizing real-time communications, and taking software from simulation through field deployment. Your work will be essential to ensuring that our autonomous multi-vehicle systems operate reliably in real-world, resource-constrained environments. Responsibilities <ul><li><b style="font-weight:700;">Develop and integrate</b> real-time cooperative control, decentralized routing, and perception algorithms on embedded platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson devices.</li><li><b style="font-weight:700;">Architect and optimize</b> multi-agent communication networks utilizing ROS2 and DDS architectures to ensure reliable data distribution in challenging environments.</li><li><b style="font-weight:700;">Implement and maintain</b> Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) testing environments to rigorously validate swarming features before physical flight.</li><li><b style="font-weight:700;">Collaborate</b> with AI, controls, and hardware teams to ensure tight integration between swarming behaviors and other onboard subsystems.</li><li><b style="font-weight:700;">Profile and debug</b> system performance under embedded constraints (compute, thermal, bandwidth), ensuring stability and robustness in multi-vehicle field deployments.</li><li><b style="font-weight:700;">Contribute</b> to system-level architecture discussions with a focus on communication reliability, modularity, and clean C++ implementation.</li></ul> Qualifications <ul><li>Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace, or a related technical field.</li><li>5+ years of professional software engineering experience in robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems.</li><li>Expert-level proficiency in modern C++ (C++17/20) for low-latency, multi-threaded embedded and robotics development.</li><li>Deep, hands-on knowledge of ROS2 and a strong foundational understanding of DDS architectures for real-time communication.</li><li>Strong experience working with embedded Linux platforms, particularly NVIDIA Jetson devices, and hardware interfaces.</li><li>Familiarity with autonomous swarming algorithms (e.g., flocking, consensus, decentralized task allocation) deployed on physical multi-vehicle systems is highly desirable.</li><li>Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, especially in real-time or resource-constrained environments.</li><li>Effective communicator and team player in multidisciplinary engineering teams.</li><li>Willingness to travel occasionally for field testing and deployment.</li></ul><br><br><span style="color:rgba(0,0,0,0.9);font-family:'system-ui', '-apple-system', 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Ubuntu, Oxygen, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol';font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;text-transform:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline;">For further information please reach out to Sally Grütte-Pad, Interim Lead TA Partner via [email protected]</span>