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Embedded Linux Software Team Lead
FirestormSan Diego, United Statesfull_timeVerifiedPosted 31 Jul 2026
💰 $180,000/yr($140,000/yr – $180,000/yr)
About the role
Who We Are
At Firestorm, we are building the future of expeditionary defense manufacturing and autonomous systems. Modern conflict has exposed a fundamental problem: the systems needed most by operators are often too expensive, too slow to produce, and too difficult to sustain at scale. Firestorm exists to change that.
We develop mission-adaptable aerial systems and deployable manufacturing infrastructure designed to put capability directly into the hands of the warfighter. From modular unmanned aircraft to xCell — our deployable microfactory — our goal is to make defense systems rapidly deployable, adaptable, and producible at the point of need.
We are looking for builders, operators, and problem-solvers who want to work on meaningful technology with real-world impact.
About the Role
Firestorm is seeking an Embedded Linux Software Team Lead to join our team. You’ll report to the Flight Systems Software Lead, and work closely with the autonomy, avionics, and applications software teams to build robust, secure applications that power real defense missions. You will also interface with mechanical and electrical engineering teams in the product design phase to ensure software compatibility. Your time will be split between management and being an individual contributor.
This is a high-impact, hands-on engineering leadership role focused on designing and delivering Linux based applications for media, radio, communications, SDK, and other Linux system daemons. You’ll oversee and personally contribute to the development of C/C++ system services and implement REST based and other API’s to interface with these services. You’ll help ensure interoperability with industry and defense standards while upholding security and performance requirements.
What You'll Do
- Team management, facilitating standup meetings, scrummaster, task prioritization and scheduling and architecture and design review
- Work across engineering disciplines to ensure software compatibility and capability with product design and requirements
- Design and implement Linux core daemons in modern C++.
- Define clean, versioned REST APIs (SemVer, deprecation strategy) and deliver software application packages, installers, and artifacts across Linux, Windows, and Android (e.g., deb/AppImage, MSI/MSIX, AAR/APK add-ons).
- Own the developer experience: samples, quickstarts, idiomatic wrappers, error models, logging/telemetry hooks, and clear documentation that make integration fast and intuitive.
- Engineer for real-time and mission-critical use: deterministic behavior, back-pressure, zero-copy paths, bounded latencies, and graceful degradation on CPU/GPU-constrained hardware.
- Harden security by default: memory-safe patterns, least-privilege design, secure transport (OpenSSL/libsodium), key/material handling, and supply-chain integrity for third-party deps.
- Build reliability into CI/CD: cross-platform builds (CMake, Conan/vcpkg), automated unit/integration tests (Catch2/GoogleTest, pytest, JUnit, NUnit), fuzzing, sanitizers, codegen validation.
- Collaborate across teams and with partners to gather requirements, refine APIs, and support field integrations; contribute to platform-wide architecture and roadmap discussions.
- Contribute to operability: diagnostics, tracing, metrics, compatibility matrices, and upgrade playbooks for customers in the field.
Minimum Qualifications
- U.S. Citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.
- Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field.
- 5+ years of experience in embedded systems and Linux development in modern C/C++.
- 2+ years of experience leading a team with people management.
- Proven experience creating and maintaining Linux daemons with systemd integration.
- Strong integration background with real-time or mission-critical systems (5+ years) including async/event-driven networking (TCP/UDP, REST, WebSockets, DDS/gRPC/ZeroMQ).
- Familiarity with industry/defense protocols and standards (e.g., RAS-A, MAVLink, STANAG 4586, OMS/UCI, Link 16) and data serialization (Protobuf/FlatBuffers).
- Expertise in secure coding and dependency hygiene (OpenSSL, libsodium, memory safety, fuzzing, sanitizers).
- Cross-platform build and packaging: CMake, Conan/vcpkg; Linux (deb/rpm/AppImage, systemd), Windows (MSVC/MinGW, windeploy/MSI/MSIX), Android (Gradle/JNI/APK signing).
- Excellent problem-solving and communication skills; comfortable driving features end-to-end (requirem
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