Autopilot Software Engineer

About the role

We're hiring a full-time, permanent Autopilot Engineer based in Hampshire. The role is primarily on-site due to hardware and flight‑test activity, with flexible hybrid working available. You'll join an agile engineering team building safety‑critical flight control software for an autopilot system, working from early requirements and feasibility through to on‑site testing and real‑world validation.

Key responsibilities

• Contribute to requirements capture, plus concept and feasibility studies
• Develop safety‑critical flight control software to an exceptional reliability standard
• Support the test ecosystem end‑to‑end: automated unit testing through to on‑site flight testing
• Maintain and (as required) fly the autopilot model aircraft test fleet
• Support issue identification, fault‑finding and debugging across software and integrated systems

Required profile

• Professional embedded software engineering experience, including Embedded C/C++
• Clear passion for the field, evidenced by personal/university projects alongside commercial experience
• Strong understanding of mechanics of flight and aerospace control systems, with practical application
• Ability to develop behavioural / application‑level logic (the “what to do”, not just the “how to do”)
• Comfortable using Git within an agile team, with solid engineering documentation habits
• Strong hands‑on experience with STM32 MCUs and the wider MCU toolchain (IDEs/compilers/debuggers)
• Low‑level driver knowledge: CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, PWM, ICU (and similar)
• Enough embedded hardware knowledge to support software integration onto rigs / test hardware
• Ability to support testing from unit tests to flight testing
• Flexible mindset‑willing to go above and beyond to deliver on‑time with real‑world quality/performance