Skyways designs, builds, and operates fully autonomous long range cargo aircraft. Founded in 2017, the company has spent nearly a decade developing and deploying autonomous logistics systems for real world operations.
Our V2 aircraft carries 30 lbs up to 500 miles, and V3 has a maximum range of well over 1,000 miles, a maximum useful load of 100 lbs, and a maximum endurance of nearly 20 hours. Both use a hybrid electric architecture that takes off like a helicopter and cruises like a plane, enabling long range autonomous delivery without traditional runway infrastructure.
Today, Skyways aircraft fly revenue missions for commercial customers across three continents. We are scaling full rate production and building toward large fleets of autonomous cargo aircraft.
Backed by Y Combinator and a $37M AFWERX STRATFI award from the U.S. Air Force, Skyways is creating a new form of transportation to advance our civilization from Austin, Texas.
The Opportunity
Skyways is hiring a Senior Frontend Engineer to own SkyNav, the desktop app our operators use to plan missions, watch live telemetry and run the fleet. If it's on an operator's screen, it's yours.
You will build the 3D mapping, mission planning and fleet monitoring tools in Electron, React and TypeScript, and make sure they hold up during real flight deployments. Your work directly shapes how operators interact with aircraft and how autonomous missions run at scale.
You will work closely with autonomy, flight operations and hardware teams, and with the engineers building the services behind SkyNav, to ship reliable tools that operators trust in the field.
What You'll Do:
Develop software applications and tools that support autonomous aircraft operations and internal engineering workflows
Build frontend and desktop applications for mission planning, telemetry visualization, fleet monitoring, and operational tooling
Develop backend services and infrastructure that interface with aircraft, ground systems, and operational data pipelines
Work across Electron, web, and systems-level software environments
Collaborate closely with autonomy, flight operations, and hardware teams to improve operational software systems
Debug and resolve issues across distributed systems, operational tooling, and deployed software environments
Contribute to software architecture, testing, deployment, and development infrastructure
Improve system reliability, usability, and operational scalability as aircraft deployments grow
What You'll Bring:
5+ years of professional software engineering experience building complex production systems.
Experience working on aviation, robotics, autonomy, industrial, simulation, or other real time operational systems.
Experience building mapping, geospatial, or 3D visualization applications.
Strong experience building desktop applications using ElectronJS.
Strong experience with React and modern JavaScript or TypeScript development.
Experience with technologies such as CesiumJS, Three.js, Mapbox, WebGL, or similar visualization frameworks.
Experience working with live telemetry, streaming systems, or operator facing control software.
Strong software engineering fundamentals including system design, debugging, testing, and maintainable architecture.
Ability to work cross functionally with software, robotics, hardware, and operations teams in a fast moving environment.
Comfort working on systems where reliability, clarity, and operational usability matter.
Bonus Points:
Background in unmanned aviation, aerospace, robotics, or defense systems.
Experience building mission planning or ground control software.
Familiarity with MAVLink, PX4, ROS, or similar robotics and autonomy ecosystems.
Experience with terrain systems, simulation environments, or sensor visualization pipelines.
Experience managing complex frontend state with MobX or similar frameworks.
Experience shipping production software in startup or high ownership environments.
Experience building software for operationally critical or safety conscious systems.
In addition to base salary, offers include stock options, so you own part of what you build. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, paid holidays, a 401k, and life insurance.
Relocation assistance is available for candidates moving to Austin.
Want to join our mission? Apply to learn more!
Due to U.S. government contract requirements, this role is limited to U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, or candidates from specific countries authorized under applicable export control regulations.
Skyways is an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status or any other factor protected by applicable local, state or federal laws.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, primarily focused on frontend development.
- Strong experience building complex, stateful user interfaces with React.
- Strong JavaScript fundamentals and experience building large scale frontend applications.
- Proven experience shipping a production desktop application using ElectronJS.
- Experience building mission planning, mapping, or visualization heavy applications, including geospatial or 3D components.
- Working proficiency in Python and experience collaborating with backend and autonomy systems.
- Experience working with real time data, operator facing tools, and reliability critical interfaces.
- Solid software engineering fundamentals, including system design, testing, and maintainable architecture.
- Ability to work cross functionally with autonomy, flight operations, and hardware teams in a fast moving environment.
Skyways Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Skyways and has not been reviewed or approved by Skyways.
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Healthcare Strength — Employee medical and dental are employer-paid with additional vision and HSA/FSA options noted; core health coverage appears strong for a hardware/robotics startup.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options are offered to every employee and performance bonuses are listed; ownership upside is broadly accessible across the organization.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off is described as generous, with paid holidays and generous parental leave highlighted; the breadth of leave supports work-life needs beyond baseline policies.
Skyways Insights
What We Do
We are creating a new form of transportation to advance the future of our civilization. Our story starts with fully autonomous, unmanned aerial vehicles with vertical take-off and landing capability and used for cargo transportation.
Why Work With Us
We are creating a new form of transportation to advance the future of our civilization. Skyways is building fully autonomous cargo aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing capability to transform how goods move. Join a small, ambitious team solving hard aerospace and autonomy problems with real world impact.
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