Title: Embedded Software Engineer
Location: Grand Prairie, Texas
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Covenant is a global defense company headquartered in Washington, D.C., building long-range precision strike weapons for the United States and its allies. Its flagship munition, Anthem, combines heavy payload and long range at a fraction of the cost of comparable legacy systems, with production volumes designed to meet the demands of prolonged conflict. Designed as an end-to-end weapon system that is simple to store, transport, and field, Anthem is produced in the United States, Germany, and Israel. For more information, visit covenant.com
THE ROLE
We are seeking a high-energy, execution-focused Sr Embedded Software Engineer to bridge the gap between embedded software execution and live operational theater deployment. This role is built for a highly motivated generalist engineer who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is excited to move from modifying core flight firmware to deploying hardware straight out into the field.
You will own the physical integration, software configuration, and range-readiness of the flight controllers and edge-compute architectures powering our tactical vehicle portfolios. This position requires significant travel to support high-visibility military modernization events, live-fire range evaluations, and remote theater exercises, requiring an operator who is eager to see their code fly in real-world conditions.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Custom Autopilot Firmware Modification: Edit, optimize, and maintain native Pixhawk open-source firmware architectures written in C and C++ to inject custom flight behaviors and subsystem overrides.
- Sensor Fusion & State Estimation: Maintain, deploy, and refine proprietary, custom-built Kalman Filters (KF/EKF) to optimize vehicle localization, guidance, and navigation loops outside of native autopilot defaults.
- Edge Compute Optimization: Deploy, optimize, and benchmark real-time computer vision, guidance, and navigation algorithms onto NVIDIA Jetson edge-compute platforms.
- Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) Testing: Build out, program, and manage high-fidelity HWIL testing setups to simulate tactical munition flights, test system communications, and validate autonomous seeker behaviors before range delivery.
- GNSS-Denied & RF Integration: Integrate specialized, complex payload hardware including CRPA antenna arrays and S-band software-defined radios (SDRs) to maintain swarm coordination in heavily contested electronic warfare environments.
- High-Velocity Field Operations: Drive the physical deployment of communication networks, ground stations, and tracking assets during live-fire contract milestones (CLINs 0001–0005), including Project Convergence and international operational exercises.
- Government Customer Interface: Author and brief technical data products, security boundary plans, and software simulation reviews to senior program leadership, military stakeholder agencies, and government laboratories.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience: ~7+ years of aggressive, hands-on experience spanning embedded flight software development, systems integration, or flight testing within a tactical defense program; includes low-level firmware extraction/reprogramming or hardware-software bridge analysis directly from physical microelectronics or tactical flight hardware platforms.
- Core Technical Palette: Absolute mastery of C/C++ programming, computer architecture fundamentals, and script automation via Python.
- Hardware-Software Integration: Proven competence configuring flight computers, parsing embedded device drivers, and setting up HWIL simulation environments.
- Communication & Protocols: Strong working familiarity with low-level embedded communication protocols (UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet, UDP/TCP).
- Active U.S. Secret security clearance
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Autopilot & Compute Familiarity: Direct technical familiarity with Pixhawk autopilot environments (PX4/ArduPilot), MAVLink protocols, and NVIDIA Jetson architectures.
- FPGA & Digital Logic Competency: Understanding of ASIC/FPGA design constraints, digital logic simulation, and interfacing processors with FPGAs for CRPA swap-overs or S-band mesh network capability integrations.
- Contested Navigation: Direct experience with advanced GNSS-denied navigation protocols, anti-jamming subsystems, and signal processing layout optimization.
- B.S. or advanced coursework in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Aerospace Engineering.
Skills Required
- Approximately 7 or more years of hands-on experience in embedded flight software development, systems integration, or flight testing within a tactical defense program
- Experience with low-level firmware extraction or reprogramming and hardware-software bridge analysis
- Mastery of C and C++ programming
- Computer architecture fundamentals
- Python scripting and automation
- Experience configuring flight computers, parsing embedded device drivers, and setting up hardware-in-the-loop simulation environments
- Familiarity with UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet, UDP, and TCP protocols
- Active U.S. Secret security clearance
- Technical familiarity with Pixhawk, PX4, or ArduPilot autopilot environments
- Experience with MAVLink protocols and NVIDIA Jetson architectures
- Understanding of ASIC and FPGA design constraints, digital logic simulation, and processor-FPGA interfacing
- Experience with GNSS-denied navigation, anti-jamming systems, and signal-processing optimization
- Bachelor's degree or advanced coursework in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Aerospace Engineering
What We Do
Covenant is a Washington, D.C.-headquartered defense company that develops long-range precision-strike weapons for the United States and its allies. Its flagship Anthem system combines a heavy payload with extended range and is designed as an end-to-end system that can be stored, transported, and fielded simply. The company aims to produce at scale, with manufacturing in the United States, Germany, and Israel.
