Robotics Software Systems Engineer
Who We Are:
Aurelius Systems is a VC-backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge-deployed robotics systems using directed energy for counter-UAS.
We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.
We're a small team of ~10 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/office, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.
If you are the kind of engineer who'd rather see your work on a range than in a lab, read on.
The Role & Your Impact:
You'll be the engineer who ensures every subsystem is working together as efficiently as possible.
Our system is a stack of complex subsystems: sensing, computer vision, ML inference, controls, power, mechanical actuation. It is paramount that processing time and inter-process latency is optimized to an absolute minimum in order to defeat our small, fast, evasive UAS targets.
The critical gap we're hiring for is real-time systems performance at the hardware boundary. You need to understand how software execution translates into physical system behavior; how latency accumulates across CPU, GPU, memory, and I/O; how bandwidth limits affect sensor pipelines; and what happens when your model runs at 120 FPS in isolation but drops frames once integrated with the full system. We need an engineer who thinks in terms of microseconds, memory bandwidth, cache behavior, and determinism.
At ~10 engineers you won't be a cog in a software org. You'll own systems that go to the range. Tests either work or they don't, and it’s up to you to iterate and improve.
What You'll Own:
Own the latency budget of the full platform, from sensing through actuation
Profile and eliminate latency across CPU, GPU, memory, and I/O boundaries
Develop and optimize kernels for high-throughput, low-latency execution
Tune memory access patterns (global, shared, unified) for bandwidth efficiency
Optimize high-bandwidth sensor data ingestion
Identify development priorities by directly analyzing technical and physical system limitations in the field
Author technical documentation and mentor junior engineers on full system optimization
What We're Looking For:
3–6+ years in robotics software engineering with real hardware systems
Expert-level C++ (modern C++17/20) systems programming
Deep understanding of GPU memory models (global, shared, unified memory)
ARM + Linux systems development (cross-compiling, profiling, kernel-level awareness)
Performance optimization across CPU/GPU boundaries
Shared memory and lock-free architecture design
Real-time or near real-time pipeline optimization
High-throughput peripheral data ingestion (USB, PCIe, Ethernet)
Multithreaded systems and concurrency optimization
Where you probably come from: Autonomous vehicle companies, drone/UAS companies, robotic manipulation labs, defense targeting systems, satellite pointing systems, or any team where your software had to close a loop on physical hardware under extreme time pressure.
Not a fit if: Your experience is purely web/cloud software or ML research that never deployed to hardware. We need someone who's fought real-time latency, sensor noise, and mechanical backlash.
Nice-to-Haves:
Jetson platform experience
DMA and zero-copy pipeline design
CUDA kernel optimization for throughput and latency
Video pipeline experience (OpenCV, GStreamer, Vimba/Pylon)
CoaXPress, USB3 Vision, or high-speed camera systems
Linux kernel or driver-level experience
Education:
BS/MS in Computer Science, Robotics, Computer Engineering, or related field. PhD a plus but not required.
What you've shipped on real systems matters more than publications.
How You Operate:
Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build a prototype tomorrow than model it for a month
Rigorous testing mindset. You characterize your own systems before the field does
Comfortable with ambiguity and fast, constantly iterating in a startup environment
Your brain only releases dopamine when you're building
You debug from first principles, not Stack Overflow
Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and ML teams
Self-directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told
Why Join Aurelius Systems?
Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.
Career velocity is real. Erick Brito went from Founding Robotics Engineer to Lead in 12 months. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact… or between you and your next title.
Work on a problem that actually matters. Small, cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer. Think infinite magazine, cost-per-shot near zero, scalable to every base, border, facility, truck and infrastructure.
Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built. You'll be in the room with the people reshaping how America builds weapons.
How we work: Core hours are Monday–Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up… nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship.
When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. We go hard when the mission demands it, and we recover when it doesn't. If you've worked at SpaceX, against a mission-critical timeline, or on a racing team, you already know the rhythm.
Benefits:
Competitive salary + equity
United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days
Travel to field test events and range days
Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks
E-bike / scooter stipend ( Up to $500)
Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work
Export Control Notice:
This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).