Software Engineer

Location: Onsite Great Neck NY
Type: Full-Time
Eligibility: U.S. Citizenship or ITAR-Eligible Status Required

Build the intelligence behind the frontier of defense.
Wild West Systems designs and builds autonomous drones and munitions for America and her allies - fast affordable and battle-ready. As a Software Engineer youll develop the code that drives our autonomous platforms: from flight control and perception to mission planning and target engagement.

If you crave ownership speed and tangible results this is where software meets steel.

About Wild West Systems

Wild West Systems is a defense technology startup redefining autonomous edge defense through modular AI-powered weapon systems - designed built and launched in the USA.

We fuse domain mastery with creativity to deliver advanced capabilities for modern asymmetric warfare. We move fast build hard and engineer for real-world impact.

If youre ready to build software that commands machines defending tomorrows freedom welcome to the frontier.

Why This Role Matters

Our software engineers own the digital nervous system of our platforms. Youll work across embedded systems autonomy pipelines sensor fusion and mission logic - turning raw data into real-time decisions.

Its full-stack software engineering from low-level firmware to high-level ML pipelines directly integrated with flight hardware and kinetic platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop production software for drone navigation guidance autonomy and targeting.
• Collaborate with hardware and electronics teams to integrate software with real-world sensors actuators and propulsion systems.
• Own features end to end: requirements architecture implementation testing deployment and sustainment.
• Develop and optimize AI/ML perception and decision models for autonomous targeting tracking and control.
• Write clean well-tested high-performance code suitable for field deployment.
• Contribute to internal tools CI/CD pipelines simulation frameworks and development infrastructure.
• Participate in code reviews design discussions and rapid iteration cycles in a fast-moving environment.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Software Engineering or a related technical field (or equivalent experience).
• 3 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proficiency in one or more core languages: Python C/C Rust Go or Java.
• Demonstrated record of shipping working software (embedded real-time or distributed).
• Strong understanding of algorithms data structures version control and software testing.
• Experience with machine learning workflows and frameworks (training through deployment).
• Comfortable in Unix/Linux development environments.
• Self-directed ownership-driven and comfortable in fast-paced ambiguous conditions.
• U.S. Citizenship required under ITAR regulations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in defense aerospace robotics or autonomy.
• Familiarity with drone/UAV systems real-time operating systems or embedded development.
• Knowledge of computer vision SLAM or sensor fusion.
• Experience in edge ML deployment (TensorRT ONNX quantization model optimization).
• Familiarity with cloud/distributed systems (AWS GCP Docker Kubernetes).
• Open-source contributions or strong public portfolio.
• Experience at a high-growth startup or technology company with strong engineering practices.

Why Youll Love It Here

• Mission that matters: build software that powers the future of autonomous defense.
• Small high-impact team where your work goes directly to the field.
• Complete ownership of your projects without bureaucracy or layers of management.
• Competitive salary and outstanding benefits:
  • 100% coverage for employee health dental and vision insurance
  • 90% coverage for spouse and family plans

Additional Information

• This position is onsite only at our Great Neck NY facility.
• Must meet ITAR eligibility (U.S. citizen permanent resident refugee or asylee).
• On-camera interviews required; identity verification may apply.
• Company uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility.
• We do not work with staffing agencies - direct applicants only.
• Wild West Systems is an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.

Apply directly:

Required Experience:

IC