Embedded Flight Systems Engineer

Embedded Flight Systems Engineer | Autonomous Systems | France

Some roles are about writing code. This one is about writing code that flies.

We're partnered with a European defence-tech company developing autonomous platforms for allied military clients. Their systems are operationally deployed - not in testing, not in demo environments - and they're building the engineering team to match that pace.

They need a MAVLink & Autopilot Engineer who has genuinely done this before. On real airframes.

The role:

You'll own the MAVLink communication stack end-to-end - custom dialects, message routing, telemetry pipelines - and the ArduPilot firmware across fixed-wing and multi-rotor platforms. You'll develop and tune custom flight modes, failsafe logic, and autonomous behaviours, then integrate AI inference layers and companion computers with the autopilot stack.

Then you'll go to the flight line and validate it yourself.

This is a bench-to-field role. Technical depth and hands-on instinct in equal measure.

What you'll bring:

• 5–8 years in UAS, embedded systems, or robotics with a strong autopilot focus
• Hands-on ArduPlane and/or ArduCopter experience on real platforms - not just sim
• Deep MAVLink expertise: protocol design, custom dialects, routing
• C++ and Python in embedded and companion computer contexts
• HIL/SIL testing and in-flight log analysis
• Experience across both fixed-wing and multi-rotor systems

A background in defence, dual-use, or operationally deployed UAS is a strong plus.

Why this:

Small, highly capable team. Live deployments. Real operational feedback loop. If you want to build things that matter and validate them in the field - this is it.

Based in France.

Interested? DM me directly - happy to share more detail in confidence.