Role Overview:
We are seeking a Senior Embedded Software Engineer for Small UAV Flight Controls toarchitect, develop, and test deterministic, safety-critical flight control firmware for oursmall unmanned aerial vehicles (Group 1 and Group 2 tactical aircraft, fixed-wing, or hybridVTOLs). In this role, you will own the software layer that sits directly between complexguidance algorithms and physical aircraft actuation, ensuring maximum stability, agility, and responsiveness on lightweight, space-constrained hardware. You will bridge the gap between control theory and low-SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power)bare-metal or RTOS execution. You will write robust, high-integrity code that operatesunder strict real-time constraints, optimizing every clock cycle to ensure ultra-low latencyfrom sensor sample to actuator command.
Key Responsibilities: Flight Software & Driver Development
- Control Loop Execution: Design, optimize, and implement high-rate stabilizationloops, attitude control algorithms, and actuator mixing logic in C and C++.
- Low-Level Drivers: Develop and maintain bare-metal peripheral drivers for highlyintegrated microcontrollers to interface with IMUs, magnetometers, barometers, airspeed sensors, and GPS modules.
- RTOS Optimization: Configure and profile Real-Time Operating Systems (e.g., FreeRTOS, ChibiOS, Zephyr) for highly predictable task scheduling, deterministicexecution, and minimal jitter. System Integration & Deterministic Communication
- Bus Architecture: Manage and optimize communication protocols over lightweight, low-pin-count buses including CAN bus (UAVCAN/Cyphal), SPI, I2C, and UART tointerface with Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs) and servos.
- Fault Tolerance: Implement robust fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR)mechanisms to immediately handle small UAV anomalies, such as sensordropouts, frame vibrations, or battery voltage drops.
- HIL Testing: Build and utilize Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation setups tosafely validate flight software performance and corner-case failure modes on thebench. SWaP Optimization & Architecture
- Resource Management: Target, profile, and optimize memory footprint(SRAM/Flash) and CPU usage on high-performance microcontrollers (e.g., ARMCortex-M4/M7/H7).
- Open-Source Hardening: (If applicable) Maintain, customize, and secure opensource small UAV ecosystems like PX4, ArduPilot, or Betaflight for customproprietary hardware configurations. Required Skills & Qualifications
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical discipline.
- Firmware Expertise: Deep professional experience developing production-gradeembedded C and C++ software for real-time systems.
- Microcontroller Fluency: Extensive experience with ARM Cortex-M or similararchitectures, registers, timers, DMA, and interrupt handling.
- Lab Tool Proficiency: Hands-on experience using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multi-meters, and JTAG/SWD debuggers to isolate hardware vs. software issues.
- State Estimation Basics: Practical understanding of digital filtering (e.g., notchfilters, low-pass filters) used to mitigate high-frequency frame vibrations common insmall UAVs.
Preferred Qualifications:- Direct experience contributing to or deploying customized PX4 Autopilot orArduPilot stacks onto custom small UAV airframes.
- Background in mathematical modeling, MATLAB/Simulink code generation, orworking alongside GNC engineers to port control laws into C.
- Experience implementing lightweight safety protocols or functional safetyframeworks scaled down for consumer, commercial, or defense-grade small UAVsystemsAbout Knightwerx
Knightwerx develops American-made, AI-powered unmanned aerial systems and remote sensing technologies for commercial and government customers. Our platforms support autonomous operations, human-machine teaming, and mission-critical applications where reliability, performance, and speed matter.
