Autonomy Software Engineer

TILT Autonomy, Inc. — Remote or Annapolis, MD Full-Time | $90k–$180k DOE

About TILT

TILT Autonomy builds the autonomy hardware and software that lets aircraft and boats fly and sail themselves — flight management control systems, the code that runs on them, and the tools that make both possible. Most of us got here the same way: taking things apart, writing our own tools when the ones on the shelf didn't fit, and staying up too late to get something working. The team is focused and deeply technical, and our systems are out in the field doing real work.

Some questions we actually care about:

• Do you build your own tools when the existing ones get in your way?
• Do you want to go deep on both sides of the boundary — the software and the hardware it runs on?
• Is there a project on your bench right now that nobody asked you to start?
• Does shipping a capability that didn't exist last month mean more to you than a title?

If you found yourself nodding, keep reading. The engineers who do their best work here are the ones with a soldering iron and a 3D printer at home, a repo full of scripts they wrote for an audience of one, and a habit of building the thing rather than filing a ticket about it.

The Role

You'll write the autonomy software that runs on the aircraft and the vessels — embedded, real-time code close to the metal, the control and estimation logic that makes a plane or a boat do the right thing, and whatever tooling you need to prove it works. You'll own problems from the fuzzy end: take a goal nobody has fully specified, decide what "done" looks like, build it, break it in sim, then go put it on hardware and watch it move.

The surface is wide by design. One week is firmware and sensor timing. The next is a control loop, a ground-station feature, or a test rig you build because measuring the thing was harder than fixing it. If your instinct when something is annoying is to go build the tool that makes it not annoying, that instinct is the job.

What You'll Own

• Write and test embedded / real-time software for flight and vessel platforms
• Build and tune control, guidance, and state-estimation logic, validated in sim and on hardware
• Integrate sensors, actuators, and comms — reason about timing, and diagnose issues at the hardware boundary
• Improve the tooling and infrastructure the team builds on — ground software, test rigs, data pipelines, internal tools
• Take a fuzzy directive and carry it to a working, tested result without waiting to be told the next step

What We're Looking For

Must have: - Strong C++ and/or C, and the judgment to write software that holds up under demanding conditions - Comfort on embedded, real-time, or Linux targets - Solid grasp of sensors, timing, and working at the hardware boundary - Git-fluent, and able to work independently on a focused team with shifting priorities - U.S. citizenship or permanent residency

Strongly preferred: - Flight-stack experience — PX4, ArduPilot, MAVLink, or ROS2 - Controls, state estimation, or GNC fundamentals (Kalman filtering, PID, simulation) - Python for tooling and analysis - Experience taking code onto vehicles or other hardware

Nice to have: - UAV, marine, or other uncrewed-systems domain experience - DDS or other comms/telemetry work - Full-stack ability for internal tools and dashboards - Active security clearance

We care more about what you can build than where you learned it. No specific degree is required, and the pay band spans mid-level through senior — we'll match the offer to the person.

Why TILT

• Build things that didn't exist. Focused team, hard problems, and novel capability that ends up on real aircraft and vessels.
• Ownership. You'll have meaningful influence over what we build and how, and see your code run on hardware.
• Sustainable pace. We work hard and build for the long haul.
• Benefits. ICHRA health benefit, 401(k), and paid time off.

Location & Schedule

Remote or on-site in Annapolis, MD. Local candidates get more time at the bench with the hardware; remote works well for engineers who can drive their own work and travel occasionally for integration and testing.