Senior Software Engineer - Drone Control & Simulation (Defense and Dual-Use)
Software Engineering
Montreal, QC, Canada · Montréal, France
Posted on Oct 28, 2026
Responsibilities
- Drone control: turn operator inputs into drone commands across flight modes (from direct control to assisted modes), through autopilots (ArduPilot, PX4, Betaflight) and MAVLink or RC links.
- •Simulation environment: select, integrate and maintain the simulator (ArduPilot or PX4 SITL, Gazebo, AirSim or Unreal-based) so operators can train and the team can test and demo in simulation, then fly for real with the same controls and the same feel (sim-to-real).
- Lead the Drone platform software: its architecture, its quality and its technical roadmap.
- Build the haptic features operators feel: no-go zones, obstacles, alerts, vehicle mode and behavior.
- Connect the Drone platform to new vehicles: drones first, then ground vehicles and on-board crew stations.
- Make it safe: predictable behavior when the radio link drops, GPS is lost or a sensor fails.
- Integrate the full chain: autopilot and flight control, sensors (LIDAR, GPS, optical flow and others), radio links and video feeds, and use them to drive what the operator feels.
- Test in the field with our drone piloting champion, operators and partners, and turn their feedback into improvements.
- Work closely with the HARP teams: align on architecture, share components and standards, and plan the convergence with HARP.
- Raise the engineering bar: tests, code review, documentation and CI, so knowledge is shared and the platform can scale.
- Mentor and support other developers and contractors working on the platform.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of software engineering in a systems language (Rust, C++ or similar).
- Working knowledge of Rust, or the ability to become productive in it quickly: our platform is written in Rust. You do not need to be a Rust expert.
- Hands-on experience with drone flight control: ArduPilot, PX4 or Betaflight, MAVLink or RC protocols, flight modes and tuning.
- Able to integrate a simulator into the platform: select a flight or vehicle simulator (ArduPilot or PX4 SITL, Gazebo, AirSim, Unreal or Unity based), connect it to the Drone platform with simulated vehicle dynamics, sensors and video, and keep it close enough to the real vehicle for training and testing.
- Experience with real-time or low-latency systems such as control loops.
- Hands-on hardware communication: serial, UDP/TCP, WebSocket, and reading protocol logs to debug devices and links.
- Strong systems integration skills: you are comfortable making several subsystems work together end to end (autopilot and flight controller, sensors such as LIDAR, GPS and optical flow, radio links, video feeds, haptic controller) and debugging across their boundaries on the bench and in the field.
- Embedded Linux experience (ARM targets such as NVIDIA Jetson or Raspberry Pi), including cross-compilation and deployment.
- Working knowledge of TypeScript and React; Tauri is a strong plus.
- A safety mindset: you design for failure modes, test them, and document the expected behavior.
- Autonomy and ownership: you can take over an existing codebase, plan before you change it, and communicate early near hardware and safety boundaries.
- Motivated to work on defense applications: you will build technology used by armed forces and work directly with military operators and defense manufacturers.
- Comfortable being the first developer on a new initiative: you lay foundations, make pragmatic trade-offs between demo deadlines and long-term quality, and work across teams.
Nice to have
- Advanced Rust: async/tokio, concurrency, FFI, zero-allocation hot paths.
- Flight dynamics and control: PID tuning, flight modes, assisted control.
- Game engines (Unreal, Unity) for realistic simulation.
- FPV ecosystems (CRSF/ExpressLRS).
- Haptics, force feedback or teleoperation interfaces.
- Video pipelines (GStreamer) and on-device computer vision or object detection.
- Hardware-in-the-loop testing (HITL).
- Protobuf schema design, plugin architectures, structured logging and profiling.
- Ground vehicles and on-board integration: kinematics (wheeled, tracked), CAN bus, crew station hardware, or robotic arms.
- Experience in defense, public safety, aerospace or industrial programs, or working with professional operators (military, first responders, inspection crews).
- Drone pilot certification (e.g. Transport Canada basic or advanced RPAS certificate).
- Bilingual French and English.
- We do not expect anyone to tick every box: if you are a strong systems engineer passionate about drones and simulation, apply.