BRINC Drones

Principal TPM, Drone & Autonomy Software

Seattle, WA · Principal

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 110 days ago

CI/CDLinuxCadenceEmbedded SystemsRoboticsHardware DesignLeadershipCommunicationCollaboration

About the role

You will serve as the connective tissue between the device software, autonomy, and hardware engineering teams, ensuring that features are developed, validated, and delivered in lockstep with the broader device software stack.
You'll be responsible for creating predictable releases, maintaining cross-team alignment, and ensuring software ships safely and reliably into the field.
This is a critical role with software program leadership spanning new autonomy feature development, embedded platform evolution, and sustaining engineering for existing products.

Own end-to-end execution of device software and autonomy programs spanning embedded/firmware, on-device services, perception, navigation, controls, mission logic, test, and release engineering.
Drive the week-to-week release cadence for deployed devices, including planning, readiness, rollout coordination, and post-release follow-up for OTA updates.
Partner closely with hardware engineering and product teams to align device software deliverables with new hardware releases (EVT/DVT/PVT milestones as needed).
Ensure tight collaboration with QA, flight test, and field stakeholders to validate software and autonomy features across simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL),and real-world flight conditions.
Drive planning and delivery of autonomy features and capabilities, including localization, mapping, path planning, obstacle avoidance, and intelligent mission behaviors.
Manage cross-cutting technical dependencies between autonomy subsystems (perception, navigation, controls) and the device software platform, proactively identifying integration risks and resolving blockers.

Bachelor's degree in Engineering (CS, EE, CE, Robotics, Aerospace, Systems, or related) or equivalent practical experience.
Proven track record coordinating release trains and shipping updates to real-world deployed devices (e.g., OTA, staged rollouts).
Excellent cross-functional leadership skills with ability to align engineering, autonomy, QA, hardware, and operations around a single release plan.
Strong technical fluency across embedded systems and autonomy: firmware/software boundaries, hardware-software interfaces, perception/navigation/controls pipelines, performance constraints, logging/telemetry, and validation strategies.
Strong understanding of CI/CD for embedded software and autonomy, including automated test infrastructure, simulation pipelines, and fleet health metrics.
Understanding of fault-tolerant or safety-critical system design, redundancy strategies, and UAV flight safety requirements.

7+ years of technical program management experience delivering embedded/device software or autonomy/robotics software for hardware products (robotics/UAVs/aerospace/safety-critical strongly preferred).

Experience with complex hardware/software mission-critical systems.
Familiarity with embedded Linux, RTOS, and common device update mechanisms.
Experience managing hardware/software co-development schedules across EVT/DVT/PVT and production ramp.
Familiarity with autonomy or robotics concepts such as SLAM/VIO, GNSS/INS fusion, path planning, obstacle avoidance, or flight controls.
Experience managing programs involving simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, or field validation of autonomous systems.
Startup experience: high ownership, comfort with ambiguity, and bias for action.
Try the hard stuff
Be innovative - Invent the future
Move fast
Listen to end-users
Strive for excellence
Don't build a dystopia

Comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans for our employees and their families
Maternity and paternity leave
Flexible Time Off (Exempt) / Paid time off (Non-Exempt)
Flexible work environment
Track and communicate program health across multiple parallel development threads, balancing new capability development, safety and reliability improvements, and integration into production releases.

We are seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM), Drone & Autonomy Software to lead execution across BRINC's device software and autonomy stack for drones and public safety products.

ardless of race, creed, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, genetic information, veteran status

This listing is sourced directly from BRINC Drones's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.