Mission Autonomy Lead - Thunder

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Maneuver Dominance team is building Thunder - an autonomous attack rotorcraft built to fight alongside crewed combat aviation to deliver overwhelming mass effects deep beyond the front lines. The team in London builds the Mission System and the autonomy that makes aircraft like Thunder work.

Autonomy is only as good as the link that carries it. Thunder is a compact airframe with weapons, sensors and radios competing for the same antenna real estate, flying low and in formation, in a spectrum that is actively contested. That is the problem you would own.

ABOUT THE JOB

You will own the Autonomy software stack within Mission Systems for a maritime autonomous vehicle, owning the software that enables autonomous mission execution. Reporting to the Mission Systems Lead, you will cover system design, mission planning, mission operations, perception, debrief, and software development infrastructure. You will define how the vehicle plans, executes, perceives, and learns from missions autonomously across long ranges of open ocean beyond line of sight.

Your spectrum of support will be diverse in nature and require you to leverage your technical expertise as well as leadership skills to set objectives, build cross-functional teams, and rapidly drive to completion. The ability to leverage your intuition and prior experience will be key in making sure the right design, analysis, and test steps are completed to ensure success. The ideal candidate will leverage their experience executing and successfully completing prior highly optimized multi-disciplinary projects.

Mission Autonomy Lead, Thunder

• Own the autonomy software architecture — planning, execution, perception, and debrief — using open, modular architecture standards (MOSA/WOSA where applicable)
• Drive design of mission planning systems for autonomous aviation operations
• Drive mission execution software that manages vehicle behavior during missions
• Own perception systems that enable the vehicle to sense and interpret its environment
• Develop mission debrief capabilities for post-mission analysis and continuous improvement
• Build and maintain software development infrastructure (CI/CD, simulation, SITL/HITL)
• Define interfaces between the autonomy stack and vehicle management system in accordance with Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) principles
• Manage autonomy deliverables across development phases, including MBSE artifacts (e.g., SysML models, requirements traceability) as required by program systems engineering
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• Provide technical mentorship to software and systems engineers
• Drive development of test and simulation fixtures for autonomy validation
• Represent the autonomy subsystem in technical and customer meetings
• Interface with Mission Systems Lead and Vehicle Systems on integration
• Travel up to 25% to test sites and customer locations

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent
• 5+ years of experience in autonomous systems, robotics, or AI/ML
• Experience delivering software through full product development cycles
• Demonstrated experience with autonomous navigation, planning, or perception systems
• Experience with modeling, simulation, and SITL/HITL testing
• Experience developing safety-critical or high-assurance software
• Proficiency in C++ and/or Python for real-time and mission-critical software systems
• Experience with Linux-based embedded or real-time operating systems
• Experience with version control and CI/CD tooling (e.g., Git, Jenkins, GitLab CI)
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with autonomous aviation systems (UAS, UAV, or manned-unmanned teaming)
• Working knowledge of ROS/ROS2, behavior trees, or mission planning frameworks
• Experience with computer vision, EO/IR sensor processing, or airborne perception
• Familiarity with distributed software architectures and edge computing
• Experience designing to open systems architecture standards (MOSA/WOSA) for defense acquisition programs
• Familiarity with MBSE tooling and digital engineering practices (SysML, Cameo, Jama, or similar)
• Familiarity with containerization and deployment tooling (Docker, Kubernetes) for edge/embedded deployment
• Experience with simulation environments relevant to aviation/flight dynamics (e.g., Gazebo, JSBSim, X-Plane, or custom digital-twin sims)
• Experience with real-time middleware/pub-sub frameworks (DDS, ZeroMQ, or similar) for distributed autonomy systems
• Familiarity with cross-compilation and toolchains for embedded/resource-constrained compute (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson or other SWaP-optimized edge hardware)
• Experience with static analysis, formal verification, or certification-adjacent tooling (e.g., MISRA C++, DO-178C-adjacent practices