Flight Software Manager

Location: Torrance, California, United States

Department: Firmware/Embedded Engineering

Who we are

Neros is a defense technology company rebuilding America’s drone industrial base. We design and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are tested in combat, iterated at startup speed, and built at massive scale. Our team culture is fast, hands-on, and obsessed with closing the gap between design and deployment.

As drones transform the character of warfare, Neros is delivering the systems the West needs to compete on the modern battlefield and deter the adversaries of democracy. We’re hiring engineers, operators, and builders who want to move fast, take on extreme ownership, and get capability into the hands of warfighters in months, not years.

What you will be doing

Neros is building the flight software that powers our expanding family of drones. As Flight Software Manager, you will lead the team responsible for the mission-critical software running on the aircraft — flight controls, avionics, payload integration, datalink, and onboard health — and the software interfaces our autonomy and ground systems depend on. You will own the reliability, release cadence, and engineering quality of this stack while growing and leading the team that builds it.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the Flight Software engineering team, including hiring, mentorship, and performance management
• Own the architecture and delivery of the airside flight-software stack across multiple vehicle platforms
• Drive predictable, safe software releases for mission-critical systems and steward the long-term health of the codebase
• Set and uphold engineering quality practices — code review, testing, and CI/CD — for mission-critical software
• Own the flight software team's test strategy and unit/integration testing, partnering with the Test organization on SITL/HITL and flight-test execution
• Define and maintain the software interfaces consumed by autonomy and adjacent teams

Requirements

• Has led a software team as a hands-on manager — owning both people management and technical direction
• Strong background in embedded, real-time, safety-critical and/or mission-critical software
• Hands-on depth in flight-control / avionics software, or closely adjacent real-time control systems
• Familiarity with flight-stack platforms such as PX4, Betaflight, ArduPilot, or comparable autopilot/flight-control software
• Track record of shipping reliable software on hardware-coupled, schedule-constrained programs
• Strong judgment on test rigor, technical debt, and quality for mission-critical systems
• Able to operate as the interface between the team and senior leadership — managing expectations upward and clearing execution blockers for the team

Nice to have

• Experience with contested-environment datalink / RF comms
• Experience defining platform interfaces consumed by other teams — e.g. autonomy, gcs, etc.
• Multi-vehicle / swarm systems experience
• Background bringing up new vehicle platforms or product lines from prototype to production

US Salary Range

$198,000 - $277,500 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Neros' total compensation package.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. We welcome all applicants without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.