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Joby Aviation · 7 hours ago

Flight Research Senior Software Engineer (Networking/Telemetry)

Santa Cruz County, CA

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level

$139K/yr - $186K/yr

5+ years exp

Joby Aviation is focused on developing electric air taxis and is seeking a skilled senior software engineer for its Flight Research group. The role involves leading the development of flight automation systems and ensuring robust telemetry data transmission between autonomous aircraft and ground control stations.

AerospaceAir TransportationElectric VehicleTransportation

Growth Opportunities

No H1B

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Lead development of end-to-end data link software responsible for telemetry downlink and command uplink between autonomous aircraft and ground control stations

Design and implement logic to select among multiple redundant airborne data links, optimizing for link quality, latency, and bandwidth to ensure robust telemetry delivery

Design and implement software for VoIP processing for low latency voice communications and radio relay between aircraft and ground control stations

Develop airborne software modules for serializing, compressing, encrypting, and prioritizing telemetry and command packets to meet performance and security requirements

Build fault-tolerant systems on the ground to receive, validate, and route telemetry data from aircraft to the appropriate ground control station in real time

Manage seamless handoff of command and control of aircraft between ground control stations

Ensure reliability and integrity of uplinked commands, including retry logic, acknowledgments, and duplicate detection across unreliable or lossy connections

Collaborate with networking and hardware teams to define and integrate software for radios, routers, and networked communication equipment

Implement observability tools and diagnostics for monitoring link health, packet loss, latency, and failure modes across the entire communication chain

Own the testing strategy for end-to-end communications, including software simulation, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and real-world flight test integration

Contribute to long-term architecture and planning, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and compliance with aviation communication standards

Qualification

C++PythonNetworked systemsDistributed systemsEncryption protocolsLinux networkingReal-time systemsGitSerialization formatsSystem-level debuggingAerospace experienceRouter softwareRadio systemsQtRustBazel Build system

Required

Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or a closely related discipline. Alternatively, candidates with a strong portfolio demonstrating the design and implementation of networked or distributed systems, or with equivalent professional experience in industries such as aerospace, defense, autonomous systems, telecommunications, or embedded systems development, will also be considered

5+ years of experience building networked or distributed systems, ideally with real-time or embedded constraints

Fluency in C++, Python, and Git

Familiarity with encryption, network security protocols, and key management for safety-critical networks

Familiarity with serialization formats and low-level packet handling (i.e. layers 2-4 of the OSI network model)

Familiarity with Linux networking internals and system-level debugging tools (e.g., tcpdump, strace, perf)

This position must meet US export control compliance requirements, therefore a candidate must qualify as a 'US Person' as defined by 22 C.F.R. 120.15. 'US Person' includes US Citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, or asylees