The Role
Develop embedded software for UAVs, focusing on firmware, drivers, and system integration while collaborating with cross-functional teams and testing in real-world conditions.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Precision AI
Precision AI is on a mission to transform agriculture with cutting-edge drone technology. Our aerial spraying systems help farmers target weeds with surgical precision, reducing chemical use and increasing yields. We’re a fast-moving, impact-driven team looking for people who want to help build the future of farming.
The ideal Embedded Engineer at Precision AI is someone who sees the future of unmanned systems and wants to help build it. You’ll work in a multidisciplinary environment alongside electrical, mechanical, GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control), and software engineers, developing the real-time embedded systems that power our autonomous drones from concept through flight testing.
If you’re someone who enjoys working close to the hardware; designing boards, writing firmware, and debugging real-time behavior, this role will feel like home. You come from a background that blends electrical engineering and computer science, with experience developing bare-metal and RTOS-based systems, writing efficient C and C++ code, and building reliable sensor and control interfaces.
You’ll spend your days designing, implementing, and testing embedded software that makes our UAVs smarter and more capable. Some days you’ll be in the lab, bringing up new boards or optimizing control loops; other days you’ll be in the field, watching your code guide drones through real-world missions.
At Precision AI, we move fast and build things that matter. If you’re a hands-on engineer who takes pride in quality, thrives in collaborative teams, and wants to see your work make a measurable impact on sustainable agriculture, we’d love to meet you.
This role is hybrid in Calgary due to the hands-on nature of hardware bring-up, lab testing, and UAV flight verification and validation.
Embedded Firmware & Drivers
- Design, implement, and optimize embedded software in C/C++ for UAV platforms and sensor systems.
- Develop and maintain drivers for IMUs, GPS, LiDAR, cameras, and environmental sensors.
- Implement communication protocols (CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, Ethernet) and ensure reliability in field conditions.
- Documentation: block diagrams, message sequence diagrams, state machine flow charts, code documentation, code standards.
Real-Time Systems & Control
- Develop RTOS-based (Zephyr) applications in C.
- Integrate ML models in C++.
- Develop multi-thread applications that interact with ML.
- Implement fault detection, safety interlocks, and power management features.
- Good abstraction and design practices.
Hardware-Software Integration & Testing
- Collaborate with electrical/mechanical engineers to bring up new boards and subsystems.
- Conduct hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and system-in-the-loop (SIL) testing.
- Debug across the hardware/software stack, using lab tools (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers) and field tests.
- Unit, black box, functional testing, code review, and regression testing.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Interface with AI Software Engineers to ensure reliable, low-latency delivery of sensor data to computer vision/SLAM pipelines.
- Work with Technical Program Managers to align embedded implementations with system-level requirements, safety standards, and operational constraints.
- 5+ years of embedded software or firmware development experience.
- Strong proficiency in C and C++ for embedded and real-time systems.
- Direct experience with UAVs/drones or with the integration of advanced sensors (IMUs, GPS, LiDAR, cameras, etc.).
- Familiarity with Linux device drivers, and real-time control loops.
- Experience testing, debugging, and deploying embedded code in the field.
- Ability to bridge hardware and software in constrained, safety-critical environments.
- Hands-on mindset: eager to move between lab debugging and UAV field testing.
- Strong communication skills for cross-functional collaboration.
- Willingness to travel 5–10% for field deployments and integration tests
- Able to handle occasional weekend work
- Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, or other UAV autopilot frameworks.
- Background in aerospace, defense, or agricultural robotics.
- Knowledge of sensor fusion, embedded AI acceleration, or safety-critical software.
- Experience with Zephyr
- Electronics: Wire harness design, electronics prototyping (Altium, Eagle, KiCAD), soldering
- Competition or Open Source Team Experience
Not Sure You Meet Every Requirement?
Research shows that some candidates, especially women, underrepresented groups, and career changers, are less likely to apply for a role unless they meet 100% of the listed qualifications. At Precision AI, we believe the right person can grow into the role, and we value potential as much as experience. If you’re excited about our mission and think you could contribute, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check every single box.
Equal Employment Opportunity
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other status protected by law.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of embedded software or firmware development experience
- Strong proficiency in C and C++ for embedded and real-time systems
- Direct experience with UAVs/drones or with the integration of advanced sensors (IMUs, GPS, LiDAR, cameras)
- Familiarity with Linux device drivers and real-time control loops
- Experience testing, debugging, and deploying embedded code in the field
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The Company
What We Do
At Precision AI we are on a mission to accelerate artificial intelligence based farming practices to create healthier, happier, and more profitable farms. By leveraging our advanced drones and custom-built AI technology, we can take crop production decisions from a whole field to an individual plant level. This type of decision-making transforms an industry that has been reliant on larger and broader technology for decades. The outcome of our solutions is integrated into the agricultural technology of today and helps craft the machines of tomorrow that will feed the world. Precision AI was founded in 2017 with headquarters in Regina, Saskatchewan. We are scaling rapidly with an elite global team solving the agriculture challenges of farms around the world.
