Software Engineer - Autonomy Infrastructure, Systems and Tools

About Skydio

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial mobility. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users.

Areas of Responsibility

• Design and build robust replay and analysis systems that enable engineers to inspect and reproduce recorded autonomy behavior, with fine-grained control over system state, perception outputs, and decision-making at every stage of the stack.
• Develop scalable infrastructure for automated testing and failure triage, expanding our simulation and log-driven test coverage while accelerating root-cause analysis through automated log processing and diagnostics.
• Operate at the interface between autonomy software and core robotics middleware, defining clear APIs, data contracts, and performance requirements for messaging, state propagation, and coordination across subsystems, while partnering closely with downstream teams to support their implementation and integration.
• Design and implement high-quality developer infrastructure and tools that prioritize reliability, performance, and usability, enabling rapid iteration, safe experimentation, and sustained velocity across the autonomy organization.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable tools used across autonomy development and testing workflows.
• Collaborate with autonomy, QA, and infrastructure teams to gather requirements, align on priorities, and deliver impactful tooling.
• Build tools that streamline stages of the robotics development process.
• Take ownership of internal services from concept through deployment and monitoring.
• Contribute to the long-term vision and roadmap for developer tools that improve debugging efficiency, test coverage, and system understanding.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience in software engineering, ideally in robotics, simulation, or systems development.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python, with a strong grasp of performance-sensitive and multi-threaded systems.
• Experience with simulation frameworks, time-synchronized data systems, or state-machine-driven applications.
• Familiarity with structured data visualization, log processing, or developer tooling design.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to partner effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Comfort operating in a fast-paced environment where requirements evolve and priorities shift.

Bonus Experience

• Experience building performance-sensitive systems (profiling, multithreading, real-time constraints) in robotics, aerospace, automotive, or similar domains.
• Exposure to robotics / simulation / physics engines.
• Background in telemetry systems, log ingestion pipelines, or automated test environments.
• Front-end development skills in modern web frameworks (e.g., React, TypeScript, Three.js, Plotly) with a focus on data interaction and visualization.
• Familiarity with distributed systems or cloud-hosted services used to support internal tools and customer applications.

Compensation

At Skydio, our compensation packages for regular, full-time employees include competitive base salaries, equity in the company.