Sr. Robotic Software Engineer

About the role

Who We Are:

Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.

We're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.

Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate, small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.

In addition to our San Francisco lab, we've opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

The Role and Your Impact:

We need a Senior Robotic Software Engineer who's a true workhorse on the Archimedes robotics stack. You write real production C++ across tracking, control and autonomy, and you raise the bar on how we ship. You'll work directly alongside our engineering leadersgup, owning features end to end while championing the QA and CI/CD practices that keep fielded software reliable. You're the senior IC who writes the code, makes it fast, then makes sure it survives contact with the field.

What You'll Own:

- Hands-on C++ development across the stack, from raw sensor data through tracking, control and autonomy

- Threading, process structure, performance and timing analysis on the paths you own

- QA practices and test coverage alongside Erick and the Principal, built into how the team works, not bolted on

- CI/CD and deployment hygiene for robotics and hardware-in-the-loop

- Automated tests and tooling that catch failures before the range does

- Code review and raising the quality bar across the robotics SWE team

- Cross-functional work with controls, embedded and EE

What We're Looking For:

- 4+ years writing production software with real shipped systems behind you

- Strong production C++ (our core stack is C++, Python is tooling)

- Real-time and performance chops: concurrency, profiling, latency and timing analysis

- Experience building or operating CI/CD for robotics, hardware-in-the-loop or other hardware-facing systems

- A genuine ownership mentality toward quality. You've seen what bad test discipline costs in the field and you fix it without being asked

Where you probably come from: Robotics companies that shipped to customers or operators, defense robotics, AV, aerospace, F1 or high-performance automotive, maritime, embedded or low-level systems work. Domain matters less than shipping.

We want to talk if: You're the engineer who writes the feature and the test for it, profiles it when it's slow, and quietly fixes the CI pipeline everyone else complains about. You've taken software from "works on my machine" to "works in the field."