Senior Software Engineer - Manufacturing Software

About the role:

At Skydio, we're dedicated to crafting sophisticated and intelligent flying robots, combining innovative design with cutting-edge technology. Our mission is to make the world more productive, creative, and safe with autonomous flight. We have a deep belief in the transformative power of drones, and our enterprise focus is already making an impact in a wide range of industries across the world.

At Skydio we can make a difference because:

• We integrate advanced AI in drones for safer, effective autonomous flight with obstacle avoidance and predictive algorithms in complex settings.
• We build all parts of the software stack in-house, including embedded systems, middleware, autonomy, cloud infrastructure, manufacturing infrastructure, and automation.
• We are a U.S. company and manufacture our drones at our factory in California.

As a member of the Manufacturing Software and Automation team, you'll be a core contributor, helping us build quality drones (along with associated attachments and accessories) at scale to meet growing consumer demands, turning prototypes into finished products. The processes and tools you build will have a significant impact on the company's scale and success.

This team is highly cross-functional. It sits at the intersection of backend (Python + Flask), embedded software (C++/C), frontend (React + Typescript), and electrical engineering (Robotics and Hardware Fixtures).

If you have strong coding fundamentals, thrive on solving and debugging cross-functional challenges, and are passionate about hardware-software systems, this could be a uniquely rewarding opportunity for learning and professional growth.

Our tech:

• Python + Flask backend + on-machine, Protobufs for IPC and RPC
• React + Typescript frontend
• On-premises containerized Linux client machines and servers, Terraform + AWS backend cloud
• Hardware-In-the-Loop build validation systems
• Internally developed framework for manufacturing and testing operations

Team Project Examples:

• Build and maintain a Hardware-In-the-Loop system for continuous testing of the hardware and software components of our drones and build systems.
• Design a  deployment system for sending code physical machines all over the globe, inside of challenging and hostile networks, with redundant safety systems.
• Build a visual configuration tool for documenting and changing how mass production processes work and change on the fly.
• Develop our robot calibration process that can distinguish between hardware and software failures and suggest next steps for assembly rework.
• Create a dashboard that visualizes the state of the factory to help engineers debug faster.
• Develop an automated test fixture that assesses drone sensors and actuators to minimize operator interaction.

How you'll make an impact:

• Architect our next-generation production systems, from front to back end to infrastructure.
• Design secure, efficient, observable, and robust software for dealing with real-time and historical data generated by the factory.
• Keep the factory running smoothly by writing clear code that is easy to debug.
• Look at a process and ask, "How can this be made faster, more reliable, scalable, and less human-dependent?" - and then make that happen.

What makes you a good fit:

• You love having fun building great products and enjoy working on systems that involve both hardware and software (8+ years of experience required).
• You are very comfortable with Python and have strong coding fundamentals.
• You are comfortable navigating and delivering within a complex codebase.
• You have demonstrated the ability to take a concept and systematically drive it through the software lifecycle: architecture, development, testing, deployment, and monitoring.
• You’re a patient troubleshooter, comfortable asking for help when you need it, and giving help whenever you can.
• Willingness for light travel - a few days at a time, a few times a year.
• You get excited by How It's Made or Factorio and want to get paid to work on the machine that builds the machines.

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