Senior Embedded Software Engineer

Location : Delft

Employment  type: Full-time, on-site

Department : Engineering

Preferred starting date : as soon as possible.

This position requires a Dutch government security screening (including residence history and foreign ties) and is subject to export-control and sanctions regulations. Any offer is conditional on passing these checks. You must have the right to work in the Netherlands; we cannot sponsor visas.

About the company

Scaled Autonomy is a fast-growing deep tech startup building autonomous interceptor drones. Small, cheap attack drones have redefined the war in Ukraine and increasingly threaten airports, ports, and critical infrastructure across Europe, while existing air defense cannot stop them economically. Our interceptors close this gap with software-defined air defense: their capability comes from software rather than expensive hardware, which keeps them affordable, scalable, and fast to adapt.

Why work with us

You will join a talented team with deep drone expertise: drone and AI PhDs and world champions in AI drone racing, coming from the world’s premier drone lab. Together, you will build the world’s best and most scalable interceptor.

We develop rapidly, with flight tests every few days, giving you the most direct feedback possible on your work. We work with leading drone OEMs, end users, and research institutes and are preparing to ship our products to our first customers across Europe. Your work will directly contribute to the security of Europe.

Your role

As a Senior Embedded Software Engineer, you will lead the embedded development of our interceptor autonomy stack covering everything from detection and tracking to guidance, navigation, and control. Together with the founders, you will shape the development roadmap. With your experience, you will guide the team in extracting maximum performance from commodity hardware.

You will work across our real-time onboard autonomy stack. This is a hands-on technical leadership role: you will design architecture and set engineering standards, but you will also write, test, debug, and fly the code yourself.

You will:

·      Own and evolve the embedded software architecture across the flight controller and companion computer.

·      Develop and review production-quality embedded C and modern C++.

·      Build robust interfaces between flight-control software, onboard sensors, cameras, communications, and autonomy components.

·      Develop and integrate low-level drivers, hardware interfaces, system services, and health-monitoring functionality.

·      Diagnose difficult hardware-software problems using logs, debuggers, test equipment, and flight data.

·      Optimize software for deterministic timing, latency, memory use, compute constraints, and system reliability.

·      Define how software is tested from the developer’s workstation through bench, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and flight validation.

·      Improve build, deployment, release, and continuous-integration workflows for embedded systems.

·      Turn flight-test findings into root-cause analyses, regression tests, and durable fixes.

·      Establish practical coding standards and mentor other engineers through design discussions and code reviews.

·      Work closely with computer vision, GNC, AI, electronics, mechanical engineering, and flight-test colleagues.

What we expect from you

·      At least five years of professional experience developing embedded or real-time software, or equivalent evidence of senior-level engineering capability.

·      Excellent command of embedded C and strong professional experience with modern C++.

·      A relevant bachelor’s or master’s degree, or equivalent professional experience.

·      Strong understanding of microcontrollers, interrupts, concurrency, memory management, timing constraints, and real-time system behavior.

·      Practical experience with embedded Linux, including cross-compilation, profiling, debugging, and deployment to target hardware.

·      Experience integrating and debugging hardware through various (serial) interfaces and with various tools (SWD, oscilloscope, logic analyzers).

·      Experience with automated testing, continuous integration, version control, documentation, and controlled software releases.

·      Experience using coding agents effectively and responsibly: providing clear context, verifying their output, and owning every line you ship.

·      A strong systems mindset and a disciplined approach to high-reliability software.

·      The ability to take ownership of ambiguous problems and carry solutions from architecture through real-world validation.

·      Clear written and spoken English, willingness to work on-site, and availability for flight testing at different locations.

·       Big plus : experience with UAVs, robotics, aerospace, flight-control software, sensor fusion, state estimation, or GNC.

·       Big plus : experience with ARM microcontrollers, real-time operating systems, board-support packages, bootloaders, embedded camera pipelines, or sensor synchronization.

This is a substantial list. We do not expect every strong candidate to match every item. If you can demonstrate exceptional engineering and execution capability, we are interested in talking.

What we offer

·      Money!

·      Participation in our employee stock option plan.

·      25 vacation days per year.

·      A company laptop and your own drone to develop, test, and fly with.

·      Large freedom in how you work and implement solutions. You will be the expert on what you build.

·      The opportunity to take technical risks, implement things the right way, and iterate quickly through tight feedback loops.

·      Genuine responsibility for software at the heart of the product, from its architecture to its performance in flight.

·      Daily collaboration with an international, multidisciplinary team spanning embedded systems, AI, computer vision, GNC, electronics, and aerospace engineering.

·      The opportunity to test your work in real-world environments and see it move from code to flight in days.

·      Work with a clear mission and a direct impact on European security.

The application procedure

We run three rounds and aim to complete the process within two weeks:

1.        A short video call.

2.        A time-boxed homework assignment followed by a whiteboard session.

3.        A values conversation.

To apply, send your CV or LinkedIn profile to [email protected]. Examples of systems you have built or technically difficult problems you have owned are very welcome.