Robotics Software Engineer: Drone Autonomy

Company Description Code19 Autonomy is focused on high-speed autonomous systems engineered to outpace, outmaneuver, and counter emerging robotic threats. Founded by veterans and shaped by a strong motorsports heritage, the company emphasizes performance, precision, and reliability in demanding environments. Team members collaborate at the intersection of robotics, software, and defense technology to build advanced drone autonomy solutions. Working at Code19 Autonomy offers opportunities to solve complex real-world problems with a mission-driven, technically rigorous team in Colorado Springs, CO.

Role Description As a Robotics Software Engineer: Drone Autonomy, you will design, implement, and test autonomy software for high-performance unmanned aerial systems. On a day-to-day basis, you will develop and maintain core software components and back-end services, integrate perception and control algorithms, and write clean, scalable code that supports real-time decision making on drones. You will collaborate closely with robotics engineers, hardware teams, and mission specialists to define requirements, conduct simulations, and validate systems in field tests. This is a full-time, hybrid role based in Colorado Springs, CO, with flexibility for partial work from home while supporting on-site integration, testing, and team collaboration.

What you'll be doing:

• Research and develop a state-of-the-art counter-UAS autonomy stack that pushes the boundaries of expert-level performance at speeds over 100 mph.

• Develop drone simulation environments to rigorously test new UAS autonomy capabilities in the lab.

• Work with an agile team of roboticists in a fast-paced environment to conduct field tests to prove the capabilities of Code19's counter-UAS autonomy.

What we need to see:

• Bachelor's or higher degree in computer science, engineering (ME, EE, AE), or a related degree from a top university.

• Breadth of robotics experience covering multiple subsystems such as perception, localization/navigation, and planning/controls.

• Depth of robotics experience in at least one subsystem such as perception, localization/navigation, and planning/controls.

• Deep familiarity with the Robot Operating System (ROS/ROS2).

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Master's or PhD degree in computer science, engineering (ME, EE, AE), or a related degree from a top university.

• Experience with drone autonomy development covering one or more of the following: simulation software, autopilot software (PX4, Ardupilot), drone hardware or custom board design, flight controller tuning, drone dynamics modeling and system identification, hardware experimentation.

• Experience in system identification strategies such as Kalman filtering, least squares estimation, maximum likelihood, and related techniques for identifying dynamic models.

• Experience developing SITL/HITL simulation environments using NVIDIA Omniverse/Isaac Sim, Unreal Engine, or related large-scale simulation software.

• Experience formulating and implementing state estimation and sensor fusion pipelines using techniques such as Kalman filters, factor graphs, VIO/visual SLAM.

• Experience with optimal control techniques such as QP, NLP, LQR, MPC, etc.

• Experience developing deep learning-based models for complex physical phenomena such as 3D perception and tracking, visual navigation, and planning and controls (RL).