Software Engineer, Real-Time Systems (Early Career)

The role

You will build and ship features in the Command & Control system that directs swarms of heterogeneous aircraft. You will work on systems that maintain state during communication degradation and prototype ways to represent vehicle telemetry and sensor data.

What you will do

• Build and ship features in the C2 system that directs swarms of heterogeneous aircraft
• Work on systems that hold state and stay responsive when comms degrade or drop entirely
• Move between the interface layer and the services behind it
• Prototype new ways to represent and control vehicle telemetry, sensor data, and scheduling
• Take features end to end, from a rough problem statement through design, implementation, and deployment
• Ship early and often, backed by strong CI/CD, QA, and DevSecOps

Required qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent self-taught depth
• Real strength in fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, concurrency, networking, systems
• Evidence you've built something hard because you wanted to
• Comfort writing code at more than one layer of the stack
• Willingness to work on problems where the right answer isn't known yet

Nice to have

• Competitive programming background (ICPC, IOI, Codeforces, USACO, Putnam)
• Game development, game jams, engine work, or simulation
• Performance-sensitive work: profiling, frame budgets, memory pressure, running on constrained hardware
• Real-time or distributed systems experience: multiplayer netcode, streaming, pub/sub, robotics middleware
• Graphics: WebGL, OpenGL, Vulkan, shaders
• Working fluency in Go, C++, or Rust
• Familiarity with video streaming protocols or geospatial applications
• Active Secret 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

• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance
• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, 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 obtai
• ITAR requirement

About the company

Swarm Aero is building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The team has created and exited multiple startups and has aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.