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About the Role

As FCS Team Lead, you will own STARK's flight control system, encompassing the software and firmware that operate the aircraft and the avionics hardware it runs on. Your team will develop the FCS as a core product, delivering it across multiple Loitering Munition platform developments. You will build and lead this team, integrating hardware and software engineering, product management, and systems engineering.

Responsibilities

Develop and manage sub-teams across software and hardware, with team leads who can run their areas.
Hire and lead both hardware and software engineering areas, building upon the current software team.
Balance core development and platform reusability with project-specific customer deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
Plan sprints and allocate capacity across parallel aircraft programmes, and keep focus on priorities with urgent deadlines and critical projects.
Build a design verification culture that catches problems on the bench: design reviews, code reviews, continuous integration.
Serve as the primary point of contact for Vehicle Systems Leads, Payload Teams, and Ground Control Software teams across active projects.
Architect a unified, modular FCS platform (hardware + software) capable of supporting multi-rotor, fixed-wing, and VTOL aircraft with minimal platform-specific code duplication.
Lead the development of automated Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test environments to accelerate regression testing.
Own the safety-critical flight termination system, hardware and software, for test and development.
Direct hardware/software co-design trade studies evaluating sensor selection, processing units, bus architectures, and power redundancy schemes.
Agree the design assurance approach with system safety and certification, oversee the production of technical documentation and means of compliance for the FCS.
Perform FMECA to ensure system reliability and redundancy.
Work with system level ground and flight testing to develop, test and analyse telemetry data for control loop tuning and design verification.
Lead the avionics software team, which shall own the PX4-based software integration and extension: custom modules, drivers, flight modes, failsafe logic, sensor and component interfaces.
Deliver flight control software to new prototypes, in-production, and in-service units, managing version-control and release management to the different platforms and fleet.
Integrate the control laws into the flight control software for each platform.
Define software development standards and processes suitable and scalable from rapid prototyping through to mass production.
Lead the avionics hardware team, which shall take our flight-controller hardware from requirements through schematic, PCB layout, component selection and integration of sensor interfaces.
Direct trade studies on sensor selection, processing, bus architecture, power distribution and redundancy.
Drive EMI/EMC, signal integrity, mechanical and thermal design, environmental qualification, and design for manufacture with Production.
Deliver flight control hardware into the HIL benches, and qualified boards and BSP into the programmes.

Requirements

Degree in aerospace, electrical, or computer engineering, robotics, or a related field.
7+ years in UAV, avionics, or robotics engineering, with 2+ years of technical leadership or engineering management experience.
Strong proficiency in linear/non-linear control theory (PID, LQR, MPC), flight dynamics, state estimation (Kalman Filters / EKF), and vehicle system identification.
Experience with PX4, Ardupilot or similar, proprietary RTOS FCS development, or real-time embedded environments.
Hands-on familiarity with PCB design principles, sensor integration, EMI/EMC mitigation, and communication buses (CAN, SPI, UART, Ethernet, Arinc, Milbus).
Experience in building and managing engineering teams.
Business-fluent English; German at working level is useful, not required.
NATO member-state citizen, eligible for German security clearance (Ü2/Ü3).
Experience with unmanned system development (multi-rotors, fixed-wing, VTOL-hybrid).
Experience in developing avionics to aerospace standards (DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A) or equivalent Automotive or Industrial standards (IEC, etc).
Experience with automated HIL/SIL test bench setup and test execution.
Experience running hardware-software co-development using Agile frameworks.
Development of new flight controllers.
Leadership in a multi-programme organisation.
Build for reuse: Solve the problem once, in a way the next three programmes can use, and say no to the one-off that would cost you the platform.
Comfortable without the answer: Make sound calls on open roadmap items and revisit them when decisions land.
Close to the aircraft: Go to the field, watch builds fly, and assess the data.
Straight about risk: Say when something is not ready to fly, in front of people who want it to be.

Skills

PX4
Ardupilot
RTOS
PCB design
Sensor integration
EMI/EMC mitigation
CAN
SPI
UART
Ethernet
Arinc
Milbus
Software-in-the-Loop (SIL)
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)
FMECA
Control Theory
Flight Dynamics
State Estimation
Vehicle System Identification
Agile frameworks

Location

Germany

Work Type

Full-time

Experience Level

2+ years of technical leadership or engineering management experience
7+ years in UAV, avionics, or robotics engineering

Education Level

Degree in aerospace, electrical, or computer engineering, robotics, or a related field.

About the Company

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company.
We design, develop, and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective, changing how autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains.
This gives our operators a decisive edge in highly contested environments.
As threats rise, STARK is strengthening the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe.

Equal Opportunity

We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.