Senior Software Engineer (Rust)

Location: Port Melbourne, Australia

Department: Engineering (SW)

About the role:

As a Senior Software Engineer (Rust) at Arkeus, you will play a critical role in designing and building high-performance, production-grade systems that power our core platforms and embedded hardware. You will take ownership of complex technical initiatives across the full software lifecycle — from architecture and design through deployment and field validation. Your code will shape the backbone of our evolving product ecosystem.

Working closely with cross-functional teams spanning machine learning, control systems, and hardware engineering, you will help define scalable system architecture, drive engineering best practices, and mentor other engineers as we continue to expand our product ecosystem.

This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who thrives in fast-paced, experimental environments and enjoys solving deeply technical problems with real-world impact.

About you:

• Comfortable working independently on complex, end-to-end engineering problems.
• Strong systems-level thinking and architectural design capability.
• Experience mentoring or providing technical guidance to other engineers.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain Rust code for Arkeus' core software stack.
• Write embedded Rust code for integrating Arkeus' hardware platforms.
• Collaborate with ML, control systems, and hardware teams to deliver robust full-stack solutions.
• Design software architecture for new product features.
• Troubleshoot, test, and optimise software during field testing.

Your experience and skills:

• 6+ years of commercial software engineering experience.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience in Rust (or strong C++ background with significant Rust exposure).
• Experience in image processing, robotics, or related domains.
• You have a deep understanding of how to make complex algorithms run fast.
• You are familiar with Linux environments.
• You can execute a high degree of independence on complex tasks.
• You can quickly build proofs of concepts and follow them through to production.
• Eligible for security clearance.

What we offer:

• We make incredible things – you will be working in a company at the forefront of innovation in Australia.
• You will collaborate with experienced leaders, with backgrounds in aerospace, defence and academic research and development – and just as much passion and energy as you have. 
• You will become a part of a close-knit, inclusive, and connected team, immersed in a dynamic startup culture. We focus on recruiting the best – this is the opportunity to surround yourself with other like-minded professionals who enjoy working in an environment where we are inspired by the passion and capability of the very people we work with.
• You will benefit from workplace flexibility and work-life balance. 
• You’ll get the opportunity to mentor bright emerging talent through our highly sought-after intern program and strong connections with universities.
• You have an opportunity to get in on the ground floor with our Employee Share Option Plan (ESOP)
• We will give you the chance to make a real difference.

If this sounds like you, please apply even if you don't check every box listed above, and join our growing team in improving security and saving lives!

About the Company

About Arkeus

Arkeus is a world leader in the provision of wide-area autonomous optical search systems in the Search, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance space for Defence, Civil Defence and Environmental Sustainment applications. We specialise in the design, fabrication, manufacture and distribution of these innovative systems.

Backed by the billion-dollar deep-tech and industry expert investors Main Sequence, Beaten Zone Venture Partners, and Salus Ventures we are scaling the deployment of our next-generation hardware-enabled software platform to help our customers improve security and save lives.

We are a small yet fast-growing company with energy, passion and ambition. Our inclusive, transparent and merit-based culture focuses on building a diverse and capable workforce - one that attracts skilled individuals who share our purpose and values.