Software Engineer, Real-Time Systems (Early Career)

Swarm Aero
Worldwide Remote
Remote

Who this role is best for

Aimed at early career engineers with strong fundamentals in real-time systems who are comfortable working on novel, undefined problems in a remote setup.

Best fit for

  • Early career engineers with a passion for real-time systems and distributed state management under unreliable networks
    — “Work on systems that hold state and stay responsive when comms degrade or drop entirely”
  • Candidates who have built complex systems like compilers, emulators, or robotics projects independently
    — “Evidence you've built something hard because you wanted to”
  • Individuals who thrive in a dynamic, interdisciplinary environment with a focus on innovation
    — “You'll work across the stack, wherever the hard problem is that week”

Things to consider

  • Must be eligible for U.S. Secret security clearance, which may involve background checks and restrictions
    — “Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance”
  • Only U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents are eligible due to ITAR export regulations
    — “applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual...”

How to stand out

  • Showcase projects involving real-time systems, distributed computing, or performance optimization in your resume and interviews
    — “Real-time or distributed systems experience: multiplayer netcode, streaming, pub/sub, robotics middleware”
  • Highlight your ability to prototype and implement novel control systems or interfaces for complex data
    — “Prototype new ways to represent and control vehicle telemetry, sensor data, and scheduling”
  • Demonstrate fluency in Go, C++, or Rust through coding examples or prior work
    — “Working fluency in Go, C++, or Rust”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Individual

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • successful feature implementation
  • system responsiveness under unreliable networks
  • telemetry representation
Typical background
degree in Computer Science or related technical field

Skills & requirements

Required

Real-time Systems DevelopmentConcurrencyNetworkingSystemsDistributed State Management

Preferred

Competitive ProgrammingGame DevelopmentPerformance-sensitive WorkReal-time Or Distributed Systems ExperienceGraphics

Stack & domain

Real-time SystemsDistributed StateUnreliable NetworksTelemetrySchedulingProblem SolvingDesignImplementationDeploymentAerospaceDefense Technology

About the role

Original posting from Swarm Aero via Ashby

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results.

The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.

Legion's Command & Control platform lets a single operator plan, direct, and execute missions across a networked swarm of heterogeneous aircraft, in real time, over intermittent comms, at a scale nobody else in the industry is attempting. That means distributed state under unreliable networks, dense telemetry moving fast enough to strain anything you've built before, and interfaces for a problem space that barely has prior art. You'll work across the stack, wherever the hard problem is that week.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

  • Build and ship features in the C2 system that directs swarms of heterogeneous aircraft
  • Work on systems that hold state and stay responsive when comms degrade or drop entirely
  • Move between the interface layer and the services behind it, following the problem rather than a job description
  • Prototype new ways to represent and control vehicle telemetry, sensor data, and scheduling
  • Take features end to end, from a rough problem statement through design, implementation, and deployment
  • Ship early and often, backed by strong CI/CD, QA, and DevSecOps

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

  • Degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent self-taught depth
  • Real strength in fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, concurrency, networking, systems
  • Evidence you've built something hard because you wanted to. A renderer, an emulator, a game, a compiler, a multiplayer server, a robotics project, a serious open source contribution. We care more about what you've built than where you worked
  • Comfort writing code at more than one layer of the stack, and no strong attachment to staying at one
  • Willingness to work on problems where the right answer isn't known yet, and to be wrong in public on the way to finding it

WHAT SETS YOU APART

  • Competitive programming background (ICPC, IOI, Codeforces, USACO, Putnam)
  • Game development, game jams, engine work, or simulation
  • Performance-sensitive work: profiling, frame budgets, memory pressure, running on constrained hardware
  • Real-time or distributed systems experience: multiplayer netcode, streaming, pub/sub, robotics middleware
  • Graphics: WebGL, OpenGL, Vulkan, shaders
  • Working fluency in Go, C++, or Rust
  • Familiarity with video streaming protocols or geospatial applications
  • Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required.

WHY THIS ROLE

You'll be one of the earliest engineers shaping how humans command autonomous systems at scale, work that's currently being defined in real time, by a small team, with your fingerprints on the architecture. If you want to build the future of human-swarm interaction rather than maintain someone else's, this is that seat.

ITAR requirement

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability.

What We Offer

  • Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company
  • Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
  • Medical, dental, vision, and 401k
  • PTO and paid sick leave
  • Monthly wellness stipend
  • Daily catered lunch (office)
  • Paid parental leave
  • Direct impact on a critical national security mission
  • A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

Source: Swarm Aero careers (Ashby)

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