Software Engineer, Autonomous Systems

JOB TITLE:Software Engineer

DEPARTMENT: Engineering

SUMMARY:

The Software Engineer plays a fundamental role in developing the key elements of an autonomous system. This position will design and develop flight or mission-critical onboard software for aircraft, helicopters, ground vehicles, vision systems, situational awareness and collision avoidance systems, aerial survey, aerial inspection and UAV GNC and path planning systems. As part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary team, the candidate will participate hands-on in the full software life-cycle, from concept through implementation; integration all the way to flight test. Piasecki Aircraft uses a multidisciplinary team to generate solutions, and our software development team frequently drives system design and execution of the research. A broad perspective and passion for execution are typical characteristics of successful Software Engineers at Piasecki Aircraft.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Define, analyze and review software requirements to meet defined and anticipated customer needs and system quality and performance standards.
• Design software architecture and interfaces and implement functionality, typically using a model-based approach.
• Collaborate with other engineering disciplines in planning design and development of systems to ensure software and hardware performance and compatibility.
• Write test plans and test cases, conduct unit-, integration-, and system-level testing.
• Typical software functionality for a vehicle includes guidance, navigation & control, mission sequencing, payload control, redundancy and contingency management, uplink and downlink packet encoding and decoding, converting between different serial protocols', hardware-in-the-loop simulation, ground based GUIs, and aircraft subsystem control (i.e., engine, electrical system, fuel system).

EDUCATION / CERTIFICATIONS / CLEARANCES:

• Bachelor’s Degree in a computer science or other relevant field, or 4 years of relevant experience that can be substituted for a degree; Master’s degree preferred
• Active secret clearance or the ability to obtain one

KNOWLEDGE / SKILLS / ABILITIES:

• Must be willing and able to be an active contributor (developer) in any of the software life-cycle phases.
• Must have at least two years of demonstrated, hands-on professional experience in at least one, ideally a combination, of the following areas:
• Model-based design and/or test using the Simulink/Stateflow tool chain.
• Software development in a relevant subject matter area: Aircraft GNC or other robotic system guidance, navigation and control; ground- or airborne mission systems; general aerospace flight control or cockpit avionics systems; ground stations; payload control.
• Development/operations of hardware-in-the-loop simulators, conducting testing and troubleshooting of HW/SW interfaces.
• Open Architecture oriented systems (FACE) applied to complex aerospace or military systems (C2, payload data, etc.)
• Demonstrated capability to have personally developed (i.e. modeled or written) production software.
• Must be willing to work under, and help refine, a defined software development process.
• Work experience or internship with developing production software in an autonomous vehicle or robotics environment.
• Operating in a regulated development environment, like CMMI (level 3 or higher) or DO-178B