Ground Control Station (GCS) Software Engineer (R3963)

What you'll do:

• Design, develop, and optimize ground control software that enables low-latency communication with UAVs and other autonomous platforms. 
• Build high-performance client and server applications that support telemetry processing, mission planning, and real-time control. 
• Implement responsive user interfaces with React and TypeScript for operator workflows and visualization of spatial data, sensor feeds, and mission state. 
• Collaborate closely with teams across autonomy, embedded systems, backend, and UX to deliver integrated, field-ready solutions. 
• Contribute to architectural decisions and system designs that ensure responsiveness, scalability, and fault-tolerance. 
• Lead development efforts on key features or subsystems, from early design through deployment and iteration. 
• Write high-quality, well-tested code and participate in peer design/code reviews. 

Required qualifications:

• Senior: Bachelor’s degree with 5+ years of relevant experience, or Masters with 4+ years, or PhD with 2+ years.
• Staff: Bachelor’s degree with 7+ years of relevant experience, or Masters with 6+ years, or PhD with 4+ years.
• Senior Staff: Bachelor’s degree with 10+ years of relevant experience, or Masters with 9+ years, or PhD with 7+ years.
• Demonstrated experience building real-time or performance-sensitive applications—preferably for UAVs, robotics, autonomous vehicles, or simulation environments. 
• Proficiency in a strongly typed programming language (e.g. C#, TypeScript, Java, C++) with exposure to lower-level systems or protocol integration. 
• Experience with web technologies, especially React, TypeScript/JavaScript, and Node.js.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including version control, testing, debugging, and performance profiling. 
• Proven ability to deliver high-quality software as part of a collaborative engineering team. 

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with GCS software, mission planning tools, or real-time visualization platforms. 
• Familiarity with API-driven systems using REST or gRPC, and communication protocols like WebSocket or custom telemetry formats. 
• Knowledge of standards such as STANAG 4586, Cursor on Target (CoT), or MAVLink. 
• Familiarity with containerized environments (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD practices. 
• Exposure to distributed systems and cloud integration for telemetry data pipelines. 
• Understanding of security best practices in control systems and networked applications.