Systems Engineer, Aircraft Software

The role

A Software Systems Engineer will support software that makes autonomous, swarming UAS work reliably and robustly. The role involves leading software standards, maintaining system architecture, and deriving requirements from aircraft subsystems.

What you will do

• Lead implementation of software standards, process, and development approaches
• Maintain and refine the software system architecture
• Derive software requirements from the functional decomposition of aircraft subsystems
• Define clean interfaces for software interoperability
• Work closely with design engineers in propulsion, avionics, and flight control
• Produce and manage verification artifacts for requirements traceability
• Participate in design reviews to drive architecture decisions
• Support hardware-in-the-loop and software-in-the-loop integration testing
• Coordinate with ground and flight test teams to define software verification plans
• Identify, track, and mitigate technical risk across the program lifecycle

Required qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in systems engineering on aerospace, defense, or UAS platforms with a focus on software
• Strong foundation in systems engineering principles and practices
• Ability to write clear, verifiable, and testable requirements using industry-standard patterns
• Familiarity with authoring and maintaining requirements using modern digital tools (e.g. Jama, Polarion, JIRA, etc.)
• Expertise in software development and verification activities for civil or military aircraft
• Experience with formal methods for verification and validation (e.g. DO-333)
• Experience with software development standards for civil aviation (e.g. DO-178, DO-254)
• Experience with software aspects of military safety standards and handbooks (e.g. MIL-STD-882, JSSSEH)
• Ability to obtain US Government clearance required

Nice to have

• Background in flight control, avionics, or propulsion subsystem integration
• Experience with ARP4754 and ARP4761
• Exposure to defense programs, military airworthiness, or flight authorization processes including MIL-HDBK-516
• Active security clearance

Benefits

• Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company
• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
• Medical, dental, vision, and 401k
• PTO and paid sick leave
• Monthly wellness stipend
• Daily catered lunch (office)
• Paid parental leave

Before you apply

• Ability to obtain US Government clearance required
• ITAR requirement: applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations fr

About the company

Swarm Aero is building large, autonomous, swarming UAS for operations at scale in contested environments. The team has created and exited multiple startups and has aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.