Senior Ground Software Engineer

Senior Ground Software Engineer

Long Beach, CA (on-site, 5 days a week) | $160,000 - $220,000 + equity

About the company

We're working on behalf of an early-stage defense technology company building autonomous underwater vehicles for the U.S. Navy. The company already has an active government contract in place and is closing a funding round now, with a next raise expected within the year.

The team is small today, and moves fast on purpose. They run on a Responsible Engineer model: whoever owns a piece of the system owns it end to end, from requirements through field deployment. No systems engineers to hand things off to. If you like building things from scratch and seeing them through to the field, this is that kind of company.

The role

They're looking for a Senior Ground Software Engineer to build their ground software stack from the ground up: the full telemetry and command-and-control pipeline for their vehicle platform. Right now, this is done ad hoc. You'll be the one who architects the real thing.

You'll own getting data off the vehicle in the field, through a satellite link, and into the cloud for live monitoring and long-term storage, plus the command side for issuing instructions to deployed vehicles. You'll work closely with the embedded Linux engineer, who owns the vehicle-side counterpart to what you're building.

What you'll be doing

• Build the full telemetry pipeline: routing data from the vehicle through satellite links into a cloud environment for live dashboards and time-series storage
• Design and implement the command-and-control system for issuing instructions to vehicles in the field
• Write telemetry code in C++ or Rust on the embedded Linux side, plus Python for data processing on the ground
• Build auto-scaling cloud infrastructure that adapts as more vehicles are deployed simultaneously
• Work directly with the embedded Linux engineer to define data formats and protocols (Protobuf, Kafka, UDP) and keep data flowing reliably from vehicle to ground

What we're looking for

• 5-7 years building full-stack ground software, telemetry pipelines, or command-and-control systems
• Strong in both C++ (or Rust) and Python. If you've only worked in Python, this isn't the right fit, the role needs someone comfortable on the embedded side too
• Have personally built a telemetry and command-and-control pipeline for a real vehicle: a drone, rocket, autonomous car, or underwater vehicle. Not adjacent web or backend work, the real thing
• Experience with telemetry serialization and streaming (Protobuf, Kafka, UDP)
• Comfortable with cloud infrastructure (AWS) and auto-scaling for real-time data
• A self-starter who can take a problem and ship an 80% solution in weeks, not a perfect one in months
• Comfortable working on a defense platform
• U.S. citizen strongly preferred (a path to security clearance matters here); green card is the minimum

Interview process

A screening call with the engineering lead, followed by an on-site with the broader team. The company can move in about a week if needed, typically closer to two.

Logistics

This is a full-time, on-site role, five days a week. Not able to sponsor visas for this position. Company details shared once we've talked.

Pay: $160,000.00 - $220,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Vision insurance

Work Location: In person