Principal Autonomy Software Engineer

The role

The Principal Autonomy Software Engineer will set the technical direction for how platforms sense, reason, and act in contested environments. You will own autonomy software architecture, define technical strategy, and build software for resource-constrained edge hardware.

What you will do

• Own the autonomy software architecture end to end, including multi-sensor fusion, world-modeling, mission planning, task allocation, and real-time decision-making.
• Define the technical strategy and roadmap for autonomy across products.
• Build and productionize autonomy software for resource-constrained edge hardware.
• Set and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, simulation, and safety.
• Technically lead and mentor other engineers through design reviews and pairing.
• Translate operational needs from warfighters and operators into autonomy requirements.
• Stand up simulation, test, and evaluation pipelines.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace/Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Hands-on track record designing and shipping autonomy or robotics software that has run on real hardware in the field.
• Expert-level proficiency in C++/RUST and Python.
• Strong command of software design for real-time, safety-critical, or resource-constrained systems.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex systems from concept through deployment.
• Strong foundation in the mathematics of autonomy: probabilistic estimation, sensor fusion, optimization, and/or planning algorithms.
• Hands-on experience with robotics/autonomy frameworks and tooling (e.g., ROS/ROS2, real-time middleware, simulation environments, or other bespoke middleware).
• Comfort working with real-world sensor data (EO/IR, RADAR, RF, LiDAR, GPS/INS).
• Proven ability to lead technically in cross-functional collaborative environments.
• Must be a U.S. Person (citizen or lawful permanent resident).

Nice to have

• Master’s or PhD in a relevant technical field.
• Experience in defense, aerospace, or another mission-critical domain with high reliability requirements.
• Depth in multi-agent coordination, swarming, or distributed autonomy.
• Experience deploying ML or autonomy stacks to embedded, GPU-accelerated, or edge-compute hardware.
• An active U.S. security clearance.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay)
• FSA
• HSA
• life insurance
• Free daily lunch
• No meeting Fridays
• unlimited PTO
• casual dress code
• pre-IPO stock option grants
• relocation assistance
• annual bonuses (coming soon)

Before you apply

• Must be a U.S. Person (citizen or lawful permanent resident).

About the company

CHAOS Industries is a defense company founded in 2022 that builds products powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™). The company is headquartered in Los Angeles with global offices.