At Orca AI Defense we build autonomous and AI-driven maritime systems for defense and government operators - perception, navigation and decision-making that run onboard, in real time, at sea, under conditions nobody controls.
We are hiring a Senior Robotics Software Engineer to build the system the autonomy runs inside. You own the runtime - ROS2 architecture, module lifecycle, orchestration, state management, configuration, fault handling, and both ends of the stack: World Model ingestion and the Vehicle Interface down to the platform control systems.
You will face hard real-time constraints, embedded compute, and a system that has to keep behaving correctly when parts of it do not. You own the stack across its full depth, from the interfaces at its edges to how the whole thing behaves in the water.
What Will You Do?
Own the autonomy runtime: ROS2 and modern C++ architecture, module lifecycle, orchestration, state management, data flow, configuration, fault handling and recovery
Implement the system's two contracts: World Model ingestion and Vehicle Interface adapters to the platform control systems
Own deployment to the vessel compute: builds, packaging, versioning, configuration management and CI
Work with system engineering and field teams on vessel bring-up, sea trials and debugging in the field
Build logging, recording, replay and observability - the ability to take any run at sea and reproduce it exactly on a desk
Integrate and operate the simulation environment (SIL)
Own reliability, timing and performance of the stack on embedded hardware
Requirements
5+ years of software engineering in robotics or autonomous systems
Deep ROS2 and modern C++ ; real-time and concurrent systems
Proven experience building the infrastructure around autonomy
Hands-on integration with vehicle platforms or low-level control interfaces
Experience with simulation integration and automated testing for robotics
A field mindset
Nice-To-Haves
Maritime platforms, marine autopilots, NMEA / AIS / radar interfaces
Experience making an autonomy stack portable across multiple vehicle platforms
HIL bench design and hardware-in-the-loop validation
Observability and data tooling for robotics
Defense or regulated programs
Challenges & Opportunities
Build the software layer of an autonomous vessel from the ground up
Own the infrastructure for a new product
Be on the boat for the whole path from first line of code to delivery
Join a small, high-impact team working at the bleeding edge of autonomy and robotics
